If you measure people's thoughts, rather than asking them about their feelings, it seems they really enjoy the time they spend with their kids. Here is an excerpt from BPS Research Digest:
In terms of pleasure, the results confirmed earlier findings,
suggesting that we spend an awful lot of time doing things we don't
find pleasurable, including "work" and "shopping". Out of 18 key
activities, "time with children" and "sex" both came in around
mid-table, far below "outdoor activities" and "watching TV". However,
consideration of the ratings for "reward" (as opposed to pleasure) told
a rather different story, with "work" now the top scorer, and "time
with children" not far behind.
Commuting, however, cannot be saved by a similar move.
yes, but children are bad for the earth. I saw it on the elevator info screen. The CO2 footprint for them is huge.
Commuting, however, cannot be saved by a similar move.
Many of my acquaintances, some of whom have 30 to 45 minute commutes, say they very much enjoy their commutes because they use that time to listen to audio books and podcasts. Uninterrupted by spouse, kids, pets, clients, colleagues, or boss.
My commute is under 10 minutes, and I take the scenic route, so no real commuting pain. (7 1/2 minutes if I catch the lights right, 8 1/2 minutes if I catch the lights wrong.)
Do you guys ever feel guilty for enjoying your children when you know that the Earth is silently thriving in pain from the excessive carbon footprint of your selfish joy?
Sometimes it gets me down but I then vow to increase my purchases of carbon offsets. I don’t actually have proof that it helps, but I am always trying to work on improving my faith.
If I read that correctly, watching TV was rated more pleasurable than sex? I must be watching the wrong shows.
I had a 45 minute commute for several years and, yes, I listened to a lot of podcasts and learned Spanish on my trip, but in no way did that improve my life vs the hours lost to the commute. It didn’t even come close to breaking even. I will NEVER have a commute like that again if I can help it.
Reported feelings are more of a revealed preference than revealed thoughts. Happiness is the true measure of ‘reward’.
Split brain experiments show that people justify their behaviors with false, superficial rationalizations when they don’t understand the true reasons for their behavior. People behave in certain ordinary ways (e.g. go to church, raise kids) because they believe “that’s what normal people do,” and believe being normal is what will (or, more accurately, *should*) make them happy. But they are wrong; people aren’t good at accurately predicting what will make them happy (see Daniel Gilbert). And then after they make these happiness surpressing “normal people” choices, they justify these choices to themselves with the false, superficial rationalization that these choices are “rewarding”.
The happiness reports show that these rationalizations are false.
‘commuting is ok b/c i can listen to/do _____’ simply makes no sense. Unless you simply like driving (and driving the same way every day…I had a coworker who liked driving b/c of the on/off ramps that he could jet around on in his little car), why not just listen to/do the exact same thing BEFORE you take your short trip to work or AFTER you get home, while sitting in a comfy chair, with a beer?
The fix for that is simply not to have children, then do the other things you like with the massive amount of money and time you otherwise would not have.
“Green is good” wrote:
Do you guys ever feel guilty for enjoying your children when you know that the Earth is silently thriving in pain from the excessive carbon footprint of your selfish joy?
“daredevil_23″ replied:
Not really. Every refuge from the 3rd world that I see in my city wants the same lifestyle my family has. They have no regrets, nor any intention, other than to maximize their wealth and lifestyle ASAP. I’ll leave the purchasing of indulgences to you.
One day there will be portable bran-scanning (or happiness chemical-measuring) techniques that can accurately measure people’s objectively experienced happiness in real-time as they move through their days. We won’t have to ask them how they felt, in other words.
Until that day, perhaps the best proxy for happiness is to measure people’s perception of time. When asked to define relativity, Einstein once answered “It’s like when you sit next to a pretty girl for one hour, and it feels like an minute, as opposed to when you sit on a hot stove for one minute, and it feels like an hour. That is relativity.” So maybe you take a group of people, eliminate their ability to measure time (take away clocks, schedules, etc.,) and measure how much time they spend on certain activities. Then after the fact, ask how much time they spent doing the various things. To the extent they underestimate the amount of time spent doing a given activity, perhaps they felt happier (or more in “flow”) while doing them, and vice versa.
@ak mike: touche. HOWEVER, you guys doing things in the car better shut up about it and quit extolling its virtues, or it’s going to get worse. (commuting time pays the cost of scarce highway/urban space, so anything that reduces the price of that commuting must thereby increase the quantity of it to pay the full cost.) In other words, now that everyone knows to listen to your podcasts, you’re screwed.
@exiled312: WTWTA is a greenie epistle? Huh, who knew.
Asking how people feel doing different stuff during their day is pretty stupid. Anybody with even the slightest amount of insight realizes that most of how you feel about the activities you are doing is driven by how you feel about your life in general. These happiness studies have a long way to go before showing meaningful results.
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