Things That Make You Happy (Except When They Don't)

We’ve blogged repeatedly in this space about happiness. An essay in The Boston Globe describes some interesting new happiness research with diverse policy implications. In recent years, cognitive scientists have discovered that humans are not very good at predicting how events will affect future happiness: dramatic things like the loss of a limb or winning the lottery have relatively small long-term happiness effects, while the opposite is true of seemingly minor annoyances. Experts in law, public health, and housing are already debating the applications of the research. (HT: Edward Tenner) [%comments]