Happiness by Ed Diener & Robert Biswas-Diener

Author:Ed Diener & Robert Biswas-Diener [Diener, Ed & Biswas-Diener, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-08-19T08:12:00+00:00

Choosing Happiness

The value placed on feeling happy varies across cultures. Asians, on average, are more likely than their Western counterparts to make decisions based on factors other than happiness. For example, they are more likely to sacrifice short-term happiness in exchange for longterm mastery. Practicing scales on the piano today can be seen as a necessary evil en route to virtuoso playing later on. A clever study by Shigehiro Oishi sheds light on the ways culture can affect choices that, in turn, affect happiness.

Research participants arrived for Oishi's study and were asked to shoot some baskets in a miniature basketball hoop mounted on a door. Afterward, they were asked to complete various emotion questionnaires, and told to come back in a week. Oishi, originally from Japan, is particularly interested in cultural differences in happiness between East Asians and North Americans, and the participants in this study came from one or the other of these two groups. A week later, when the research subjects returned to the laboratory, Oishi gave them a choice: they could shoot baskets again, or they could opt for a new activity - throwing darts. Once again, they were asked to complete some surveys, and dismissed from the study. Unbeknownst to the participants, Oishi and his colleagues kept track of how many baskets each person made, and how many they missed.

In the basketball study, Oishi discovered an interesting pattern of cultural differences between Asians and Americans. Most of the Asians who performed well the first week, successfully making many baskets, chose to move on to darts the second week. The Asians who performed poorly at hoops chose to stick with basketball again the second week, in hopes of mastering the skill. If they did well at hoops, they could move on to master a new task. The North Americans, by contrast, chose to stick with basketball if they scored many baskets on week one. They wanted to do well again. If they performed poorly the first time, they opted for darts the second week, perhaps hoping a new activity might bring better luck and more fun. And although the two groups were equally happy during the first round, the Americans enjoyed their task more during the second, because those who did poorly in the first week felt free to choose a new task. According to Oishi, this pattern suggests underlying cultural values: Asians tend to seek mastery first, while Americans have a greater tendency to favor fun and feeling good.

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