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I research people's happiness um and
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what I found across the work is that
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time plays a critical role so for
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instance I've looked at what's the
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effect of merely drawing people's
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attention to time as opposed to our
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other lovely resource of money how does
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that impact people's levels of happiness
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how does age and more specifically the
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amount of time people feel like they
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have left in life influence both how
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people experience happiness as well well
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as the types of experiences that elicit
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greater happiness so for example the
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things that I have found is that
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focusing on time leads to Greater
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happiness than focusing on money and the
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way that I explored that was building on
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prior work which has tracked how people
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spend their days and also how people
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feel over the course of their days
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finding that people are happiest when
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they are connecting with other people
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there least happy when they are doing
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work or commuting and so I wanted to see
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would thinking about time versus money
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influence people's Tendencies to behave
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in particularly happy or unhappy ways
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and so in one
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study I looked in a context um in which
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people both connect with others as well
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as do work namely at a cafe and so what
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I did was as people were entering a cafe
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asked them to fill out a survey and on
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survey was a sentence and scramble task
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which surreptitiously exposed them to
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time related words or money related
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words and they were thaned they went
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into the cafe and unbeknownst to them we
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observed how they spent their time at
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the cafe noting the extent to which they
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were connecting with other people at the
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cafe talking to others or on the phone
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um the extent to which they were doing
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work so either on their computers or
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reading books um and as they left the
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cafe we we conducted another survey
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asking how happy they felt and those who
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were led to think about happiness or
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time rather going into the cafe spent
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more time connecting and left happier
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than those who were led to think about
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money going into the cafe in the other
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work um I have found that age influences
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how people experience happiness so the
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way we looked into this initially was
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looking at how people Express feeling
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happy on their personal blog so we
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looked at millions of blogs any any time
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someone wrote I feel or I'm feeling
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happy we looked at the content of that
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emotional expression and what we found
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was that there's really two forms of
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happiness that emerged one that's really
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tied to feeling excited and the other
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that's tied to feeling calm and based on
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the blogger's profile information we
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could see who it was that was expressing
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these different types of Happiness so
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what we found was that people people in
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their teens and 20s were significantly
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more likely to express excited happiness
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than calm happiness people in their 30s
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were actually equally as likely to
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express one or the other and then people
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in their 40s 50s 60s and above were
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significantly more likely to express
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feeling calm happiness than excited
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happiness suggesting that the way that
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we feel happy um changes over the course
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of our life um in other work we're
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looking at the types of experiences that
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are associated with greater happiness
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Finding that again actually age has an
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impact so comparing the happiness that
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people extract from extraordinary
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experiences you know those bucket list
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type events like um in credible
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vacations um life Milestones graduation
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getting married um versus ordinary
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experiences those mundane everyday
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events um and what we found was that
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amongst younger people or people who
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felt like they had a lot of time left in
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life it was really those extraordinary
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experiences that led to Greater
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happiness but interestingly as people
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got older those ordinary experiences
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produced greater happiness such that
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amongst older
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participants um they felt as much
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happiness from ordinary experiences as
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from extraordinary
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experiences well I thought I was really
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interesting that when a 20-year-old says
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I feel happy and when a 60-year-old says
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the very same thing I feel happy they're
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likely feeling very different things um
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one excited you know an excited feeling
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and the other um a greater sense of calm
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um I also think it's uh surprising and
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actually quite nice that these ordinary
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experiences those little moments um that
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sort of pop up every day can produce as
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much happiness as extraordinary moments
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and I think that's really powerful in
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terms of where people find um the
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happiness in their
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life so an interesting implication for
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consumers or really anyone who's
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interested in feeling happy is to shift
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attention away from money which is a
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resource that tends to absorb most of
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our attention and our sort of thinking
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and planning on a daily basis and shift
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it to this other sort of I would argue
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fundamentally precious um resource of
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time and in making that shift it will
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remind you and motivate you to behave in
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ways that are happier and to spend your
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time in more fulfilling ways um another
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implication is
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to understand that what makes you happy
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and even the way that you feel
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Happyness um will or has changed over
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the course of your life so not holding
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your um in evaluating or assessing your
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level of Happiness not holding yourself
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to a standard that was either you know a
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concept that you had when you were
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younger um and allowing yourself to
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accept and sort of appreciate that it is
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maybe those Quiet Moments those calming
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moments
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um where you really will find happiness
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it doesn't mean that you're boring if
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you're fired up about you know a Friday
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night on the couch watching TV or movies
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um that allowing yourself and realizing
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that that's actually perhaps if that's
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what you want to be doing that that is a
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happy
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outcome yeah so it has um tremendous
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implications for marketers in two ways
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first you see more and more examples of
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marketers through their campaigns um and
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S branding of trying to really connect
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with consumers on this fundamental level
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by promising happiness and what it
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suggests is
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that they should think about um first of
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all who they're targeting what
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demographic are they trying to speak to
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older or younger individuals um and Ed L
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how should they be communicating that
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happiness that they're promising is it
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this excitement these like loud colors
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um high energy um intense color um or is
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it should they be conveying happiness as
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a more sort of tranquil Serene calm type
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of Happiness to really connect with and
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resonate with an older
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consumer um it also has more
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implications for marketers who are more
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and more there's this trend towards
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dialing up the experiential aspect of
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your product or brand and it's
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suggesting that again um they should
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consider who they're looking to connect
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with and speak to um in terms of in
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order to inform the types of experiences
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that they are really positioning
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themselves with respect to so is it this
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exciting extraordinary those types of
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experiences or is it those more everyday
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main experiences that will really
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resonate um with their target
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consumer well uh there is the news story
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from a couple of weeks ago when six
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Iranians were arrested for posting on
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YouTube a video of them dancing and um
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to the Fel song Happy um and I think it
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what it does is first of all the the
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fact that the F song happy has become a
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phenomen phenomenon in and of itself
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suggests that this emotion of happiness
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is so fundamental and so motivating and
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so resonant with people um and the fact
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that uh there's been such an outpouring
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of support and care for these young
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Iranians who were arrested for that the
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act of celebrating um and sharing their
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happiness um just goes to show how um
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effective uh this emotion um of
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happiness
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is so what it suggests is that happiness
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is not a
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singular thing that people you know are
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pursuing and will someday get there um
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instead and on the other hand it's
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actually not idio purely idiosyncratic
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and something different to everyone um
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instead there is predictable regularity
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in how people experience happiness as
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well as the experiences that elicit
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happiness and there's a systematic shift
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over the course of people's lives
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whereby when people are younger
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happiness is more about feeling excited
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as people get older happiness is more
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about feeling
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calm it suggests that we should be
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shifting our attention um away from
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money and towards time so there is a lot
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of attention within the business school
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of Wharton and research um on money in
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the bottom line and also within
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psychology and happiness research that's
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looking at this relationship of does
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money buy happiness and I would argue in
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my research would argue that um that
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there is a lot of value in shifting
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attention altogether um towards this
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other resource um that is so fundamental
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to us and that is
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time I exploring several different sort
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of paths all related to time and
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happiness um one is what are happy ways
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of spending time we've been looking at
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whether people should be filling their
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days with more variety versus less
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variety so um and so far it suggests
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that in general actually variety is a
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spice of life people um enjoy greater
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happiness from a more varied activities
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but that is not the case when you get to
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smaller partitions of time like an hour
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um and in some cases even a day where
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too much variety makes you feel like you
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haven't gotten anything completed um in
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other work I am looking at um with a
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doctoral student of mine we're exploring
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the impact of giving time on the extent
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to which people feel connected with
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other people so specifically find ing
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that when people give experiential gifts
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the gift of time um people the recipient
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feels more connected to their gift giver
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than um receiving a material gift uh and
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finally I'm doing work looking at
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whether
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people would prefer feeling happy over
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the course of an hour or their life or
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whether they would prefer feeling happy
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looking back on that hour or life so
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this preference between experienced
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versus remembered
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[Music]
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happiness
