0:00:00.444,0:00:03.516 When I was President of the American[br]Psychological Association, 0:00:03.540,0:00:05.166 they tried to media-train me. 0:00:05.190,0:00:10.753 And an encounter I had with CNN summarizes 0:00:10.890,0:00:12.878 what I'm going to be talking about today, 0:00:12.902,0:00:15.976 which is the eleventh reason[br]to be optimistic. 0:00:16.000,0:00:21.176 The editor of Discover told us 10 of them; 0:00:22.199,0:00:24.294 I'm going to give you the eleventh. 0:00:24.318,0:00:28.077 So they came to me, CNN,[br]and they said, "Professor Seligman -- 0:00:29.550,0:00:32.763 would you tell us about the state[br]of psychology today? 0:00:32.787,0:00:34.704 We'd like to interview you about that." 0:00:34.728,0:00:35.942 And I said, "Great." 0:00:35.966,0:00:40.299 And she said, "But this is CNN,[br]so you only get a sound bite." 0:00:41.309,0:00:43.777 I said, "Well, how many words do I get?" 0:00:44.547,0:00:46.184 And she said, "Well, one." 0:00:46.208,0:00:47.564 (Laughter) 0:00:48.018,0:00:50.357 And the cameras rolled, and she said, 0:00:50.381,0:00:53.698 "Professor Seligman,[br]what is the state of psychology today?" 0:00:55.228,0:00:56.387 "Good." 0:00:56.411,0:00:58.539 (Laughter) 0:00:58.563,0:01:01.563 "Cut! Cut. That won't do. 0:01:02.904,0:01:05.686 We'd really better give[br]you a longer sound bite." 0:01:05.710,0:01:07.440 "How many words do I get this time?" 0:01:07.464,0:01:08.880 "Well, you get two." 0:01:08.904,0:01:10.636 (Laughter) 0:01:10.660,0:01:13.764 "Doctor Seligman, what is the state[br]of psychology today?" 0:01:15.607,0:01:16.779 "Not good." 0:01:16.803,0:01:23.803 (Laughter) 0:01:28.557,0:01:29.729 "Look, Doctor Seligman, 0:01:29.753,0:01:32.747 we can see you're really[br]not comfortable in this medium. 0:01:32.771,0:01:35.160 We'd better give you a real sound bite. 0:01:35.184,0:01:37.739 This time you can have three words. 0:01:38.289,0:01:41.718 Professor Seligman, what is the state[br]of psychology today?" 0:01:43.202,0:01:44.352 "Not good enough." 0:01:46.005,0:01:48.089 That's what I'm going to be talking about. 0:01:48.113,0:01:52.222 I want to say why psychology[br]was good, why it was not good, 0:01:52.246,0:01:56.346 and how it may become,[br]in the next 10 years, good enough. 0:01:56.742,0:02:01.054 And by parallel summary, I want to say[br]the same thing about technology, 0:02:01.078,0:02:02.783 about entertainment and design, 0:02:02.807,0:02:04.988 because I think the issues[br]are very similar. 0:02:05.335,0:02:08.009 So, why was psychology good? 0:02:08.387,0:02:12.976 Well, for more than 60 years, psychology[br]worked within the disease model. 0:02:13.000,0:02:14.976 Ten years ago, when I was on an airplane 0:02:15.000,0:02:19.023 and I introduced myself to my seatmate,[br]and told them what I did, 0:02:19.047,0:02:20.640 they'd move away from me, 0:02:21.862,0:02:24.313 because, quite rightly, they were saying 0:02:24.337,0:02:26.936 psychology is about finding[br]what's wrong with you. 0:02:26.960,0:02:28.371 Spot the loony. 0:02:28.395,0:02:32.350 And now, when I tell people[br]what I do, they move toward me. 0:02:32.791,0:02:37.180 What was good about psychology -- 0:02:37.204,0:02:40.226 about the $30 billion[br]investment NIMH made, 0:02:40.250,0:02:41.976 about working in the disease model, 0:02:42.000,0:02:44.457 about what you mean by psychology -- 0:02:44.481,0:02:48.871 is that, 60 years ago,[br]none of the disorders were treatable; 0:02:48.895,0:02:50.807 it was entirely smoke and mirrors. 0:02:50.831,0:02:53.294 And now, 14 of the disorders[br]are treatable, 0:02:53.318,0:02:55.222 two of them actually curable. 0:02:55.731,0:03:00.456 And the other thing that happened[br]is that a science developed, 0:03:00.480,0:03:02.408 a science of mental illness. 0:03:02.432,0:03:07.208 We found out we could take fuzzy concepts 0:03:07.232,0:03:10.212 like depression, alcoholism, 0:03:10.236,0:03:11.827 and measure them with rigor; 0:03:12.269,0:03:16.098 that we could create a classification[br]of the mental illnesses; 0:03:16.444,0:03:21.125 that we could understand[br]the causality of the mental illnesses. 0:03:21.149,0:03:24.976 We could look across time[br]at the same people -- 0:03:25.000,0:03:28.977 people, for example, who were genetically[br]vulnerable to schizophrenia -- 0:03:29.001,0:03:34.213 and ask what the contribution[br]of mothering, of genetics are, 0:03:34.237,0:03:36.601 and we could isolate third variables 0:03:36.625,0:03:38.976 by doing experiments[br]on the mental illnesses. 0:03:39.489,0:03:42.991 And best of all, we were able,[br]in the last 50 years, 0:03:43.015,0:03:46.844 to invent drug treatments[br]and psychological treatments. 0:03:47.722,0:03:50.976 And then we were able[br]to test them rigorously, 0:03:51.000,0:03:54.293 in random-assignment,[br]placebo-controlled designs, 0:03:54.317,0:03:56.569 throw out the things that didn't work, 0:03:56.593,0:03:58.317 keep the things that actively did. 0:03:58.696,0:04:01.859 The conclusion of that is, 0:04:01.883,0:04:04.976 psychology and psychiatry[br]of the last 60 years 0:04:05.000,0:04:10.153 can actually claim that we can make[br]miserable people less miserable. 0:04:10.658,0:04:12.810 And I think that's terrific. 0:04:12.834,0:04:14.220 I'm proud of it. 0:04:17.833,0:04:21.401 But what was not good,[br]the consequences of that, 0:04:21.515,0:04:22.931 were three things. 0:04:22.955,0:04:24.733 The first was moral; 0:04:24.757,0:04:29.551 that psychologists and psychiatrists[br]became victimologists, pathologizers; 0:04:29.575,0:04:32.617 that our view of human nature[br]was that if you were in trouble, 0:04:32.641,0:04:34.038 bricks fell on you. 0:04:34.414,0:04:37.155 And we forgot that people[br]made choices and decisions. 0:04:37.179,0:04:38.677 We forgot responsibility. 0:04:39.068,0:04:40.743 That was the first cost. 0:04:41.217,0:04:44.976 The second cost was[br]that we forgot about you people. 0:04:45.521,0:04:49.076 We forgot about improving normal lives. 0:04:49.100,0:04:54.976 We forgot about a mission to make[br]relatively untroubled people happier, 0:04:55.000,0:04:57.780 more fulfilled, more productive. 0:04:57.804,0:05:01.110 And "genius," "high-talent,"[br]became a dirty word. 0:05:01.527,0:05:03.063 No one works on that. 0:05:03.562,0:05:06.976 And the third problem[br]about the disease model is, 0:05:07.000,0:05:10.281 in our rush to do something[br]about people in trouble, 0:05:10.305,0:05:14.021 in our rush to do something[br]about repairing damage, 0:05:15.433,0:05:18.048 it never occurred to us[br]to develop interventions 0:05:18.072,0:05:21.831 to make people happier --[br]positive interventions. 0:05:22.335,0:05:24.176 So that was not good. 0:05:24.200,0:05:29.029 And so that's what led people[br]like Nancy Etcoff, Dan Gilbert, 0:05:29.053,0:05:30.962 Mike Csikszentmihalyi and myself 0:05:30.986,0:05:33.846 to work in something I call,[br]"positive psychology," 0:05:33.870,0:05:35.282 which has three aims. 0:05:35.679,0:05:40.565 The first is that psychology[br]should be just as concerned 0:05:40.589,0:05:43.305 with human strength[br]as it is with weakness. 0:05:44.000,0:05:48.646 It should be just as concerned[br]with building strength 0:05:48.670,0:05:50.808 as with repairing damage. 0:05:50.832,0:05:53.515 It should be interested[br]in the best things in life. 0:05:53.539,0:05:55.413 And it should be just as concerned 0:05:55.437,0:05:59.150 with making the lives[br]of normal people fulfilling, 0:05:59.174,0:06:03.123 and with genius,[br]with nurturing high talent. 0:06:04.068,0:06:08.551 So in the last 10 years[br]and the hope for the future, 0:06:08.575,0:06:11.976 we've seen the beginnings[br]of a science of positive psychology, 0:06:12.000,0:06:14.175 a science of what makes life worth living. 0:06:14.539,0:06:19.084 It turns out that we can measure[br]different forms of happiness. 0:06:19.108,0:06:22.588 And any of you, for free,[br]can go to that website -- 0:06:22.612,0:06:24.003 [www.authentichappiness.org] 0:06:24.027,0:06:26.506 and take the entire panoply[br]of tests of happiness. 0:06:26.530,0:06:30.976 You can ask, how do you stack[br]up for positive emotion, for meaning, 0:06:31.000,0:06:35.028 for flow, against literally tens[br]of thousands of other people? 0:06:35.718,0:06:40.976 We created the opposite of the diagnostic[br]manual of the insanities: 0:06:41.000,0:06:46.221 a classification of the strengths[br]and virtues that looks at the sex ratio, 0:06:46.245,0:06:48.451 how they're defined, how to diagnose them, 0:06:48.475,0:06:51.293 what builds them[br]and what gets in their way. 0:06:53.000,0:06:57.439 We found that we could discover[br]the causation of the positive states, 0:06:57.463,0:07:00.976 the relationship between left[br]hemispheric activity 0:07:01.000,0:07:07.000 and right hemispheric activity,[br]as a cause of happiness. 0:07:08.500,0:07:11.477 I've spent my life working[br]on extremely miserable people, 0:07:11.501,0:07:12.888 and I've asked the question: 0:07:12.912,0:07:16.565 How do extremely miserable people[br]differ from the rest of you? 0:07:16.589,0:07:20.976 And starting about six years ago,[br]we asked about extremely happy people. 0:07:21.000,0:07:23.540 How do they differ from the rest of us? 0:07:23.564,0:07:27.047 It turns out there's one way,[br]very surprising -- 0:07:27.071,0:07:29.739 they're not more religious,[br]they're not in better shape, 0:07:29.763,0:07:32.851 they don't have more money,[br]they're not better looking, 0:07:32.875,0:07:35.630 they don't have more good events[br]and fewer bad events. 0:07:35.654,0:07:39.042 The one way in which they differ:[br]they're extremely social. 0:07:40.804,0:07:43.505 They don't sit in seminars[br]on Saturday morning. 0:07:43.529,0:07:47.484 (Laughter) 0:07:47.977,0:07:49.477 They don't spend time alone. 0:07:49.501,0:07:51.699 Each of them is in a romantic relationship 0:07:51.723,0:07:54.871 and each has a rich repertoire of friends. 0:07:54.895,0:07:59.272 But watch out here -- this is merely[br]correlational data, not causal, 0:07:59.296,0:08:02.894 and it's about happiness[br]in the first, "Hollywood" sense, 0:08:02.918,0:08:04.130 I'm going to talk about, 0:08:04.154,0:08:08.320 happiness of ebullience[br]and giggling and good cheer. 0:08:08.344,0:08:11.179 And I'm going to suggest to you[br]that's not nearly enough, 0:08:11.203,0:08:12.353 in just a moment. 0:08:13.424,0:08:17.805 We found we could begin to look[br]at interventions over the centuries, 0:08:17.829,0:08:19.622 from the Buddha to Tony Robbins. 0:08:19.646,0:08:24.429 About 120 interventions have been proposed[br]that allegedly make people happy. 0:08:24.856,0:08:29.478 And we find that we've been able[br]to manualize many of them, 0:08:29.502,0:08:31.421 and we actually carry out 0:08:31.445,0:08:35.087 random-assignment efficacy[br]and effectiveness studies. 0:08:35.111,0:08:39.267 That is, which ones actually[br]make people lastingly happier? 0:08:39.291,0:08:42.518 In a couple of minutes, I'll tell you[br]about some of those results. 0:08:42.542,0:08:48.976 But the upshot of this is that the mission[br]I want psychology to have, 0:08:49.000,0:08:52.487 in addition to its mission[br]of curing the mentally ill, 0:08:52.511,0:08:56.785 and in addition to its mission of making[br]miserable people less miserable, 0:08:56.809,0:09:00.380 is, can psychology actually[br]make people happier? 0:09:00.762,0:09:04.908 And to ask that question -- "happy"[br]is not a word I use very much -- 0:09:05.435,0:09:06.848 we've had to break it down 0:09:06.872,0:09:09.404 into what I think[br]is askable about "happy." 0:09:09.428,0:09:12.414 And I believe there are three different -- 0:09:13.179,0:09:16.462 I call them "different" because different[br]interventions build them, 0:09:16.486,0:09:18.887 it's possible to have one[br]rather than the other -- 0:09:18.911,0:09:20.888 three different happy lives. 0:09:20.912,0:09:24.029 The first happy life is the pleasant life. 0:09:24.053,0:09:27.438 This is a life in which you have[br]as much positive emotion 0:09:27.462,0:09:28.976 as you possibly can, 0:09:29.000,0:09:31.101 and the skills to amplify it. 0:09:31.125,0:09:33.305 The second is a life of engagement: 0:09:33.329,0:09:38.694 a life in your work, your parenting,[br]your love, your leisure; 0:09:38.718,0:09:40.024 time stops for you. 0:09:41.142,0:09:43.190 That's what Aristotle was talking about. 0:09:43.214,0:09:45.281 And third, the meaningful life. 0:09:45.305,0:09:47.976 I want to say a little bit[br]about each of those lives 0:09:48.000,0:09:49.817 and what we know about them. 0:09:49.841,0:09:54.819 The first life is the pleasant life,[br]and it's simply, as best we can find it, 0:09:54.843,0:09:57.130 it's having as many[br]of the pleasures as you can, 0:09:57.154,0:09:59.263 as much positive emotion as you can, 0:09:59.553,0:10:05.775 and learning the skills -- savoring,[br]mindfulness -- that amplify them, 0:10:06.114,0:10:08.976 that stretch them over time and space. 0:10:09.000,0:10:12.976 But the pleasant life has three drawbacks, 0:10:13.000,0:10:16.508 and it's why positive psychology[br]is not happy-ology, 0:10:16.532,0:10:18.409 and why it doesn't end here. 0:10:18.881,0:10:21.976 The first drawback is,[br]it turns out the pleasant life, 0:10:22.000,0:10:24.437 your experience of positive emotion, 0:10:24.659,0:10:29.382 is about 50 percent heritable, 0:10:29.406,0:10:32.976 and, in fact, not very modifiable. 0:10:33.000,0:10:37.539 So the different tricks[br]that Matthieu and I and others know 0:10:37.563,0:10:41.174 about increasing the amount[br]of positive emotion in your life 0:10:41.198,0:10:45.174 are 15 to 20 percent tricks,[br]getting more of it. 0:10:45.496,0:10:49.738 Second is that positive[br]emotion habituates. 0:10:49.762,0:10:53.562 It habituates rapidly, indeed. 0:10:53.586,0:10:55.956 It's all like French vanilla ice cream: 0:10:55.980,0:10:58.595 the first taste is 100 percent; 0:10:58.619,0:11:00.788 by the time you're down[br]to the sixth taste, 0:11:00.812,0:11:01.969 it's gone. 0:11:03.657,0:11:06.789 And, as I said,[br]it's not particularly malleable. 0:11:08.440,0:11:10.307 And this leads to the second life. 0:11:10.331,0:11:12.269 I have to tell you about my friend Len, 0:11:12.293,0:11:18.204 to talk about why positive psychology[br]is more than positive emotion, 0:11:18.228,0:11:19.976 more than building pleasure. 0:11:20.000,0:11:23.976 In two of the three great arenas[br]of life, by the time Len was 30, 0:11:24.000,0:11:26.424 Len was enormously successful. 0:11:26.448,0:11:29.976 The first arena was work. 0:11:30.000,0:11:32.636 By the time he was 20,[br]he was an options trader. 0:11:32.660,0:11:35.087 By the time he was 25,[br]he was a multimillionaire 0:11:35.111,0:11:37.457 and the head of an options[br]trading company. 0:11:38.000,0:11:43.147 Second, in play, he's a national[br]champion bridge player. 0:11:45.206,0:11:49.976 But in the third great arena of life,[br]love, Len is an abysmal failure. 0:11:50.000,0:11:54.942 And the reason he was,[br]was that Len is a cold fish. 0:11:56.000,0:11:57.150 (Laughter) 0:11:58.094,0:12:00.000 Len is an introvert. 0:12:02.532,0:12:05.976 American women said to Len,[br]when he dated them, 0:12:06.000,0:12:09.976 "You're no fun. You don't have[br]positive emotion. Get lost." 0:12:10.787,0:12:15.976 And Len was wealthy enough to be able[br]to afford a Park Avenue psychoanalyst, 0:12:16.000,0:12:19.744 who for five years tried[br]to find the sexual trauma 0:12:19.768,0:12:23.194 that had somehow locked[br]positive emotion inside of him. 0:12:23.737,0:12:26.891 But it turned out there wasn't[br]any sexual trauma. 0:12:26.915,0:12:29.106 It turned out that -- 0:12:29.130,0:12:31.509 Len grew up in Long Island 0:12:31.533,0:12:37.115 and he played football[br]and watched football, and played bridge. 0:12:38.376,0:12:42.586 Len is in the bottom five percent[br]of what we call positive affectivities. 0:12:42.610,0:12:44.395 The question is: Is Len unhappy? 0:12:44.658,0:12:46.077 And I want to say, not. 0:12:46.427,0:12:49.386 Contrary to what psychology told us 0:12:49.410,0:12:53.562 about the bottom 50 percent[br]of the human race in positive affectivity, 0:12:53.586,0:12:56.178 I think Len is one[br]of the happiest people I know. 0:12:56.202,0:12:58.848 He's not consigned[br]to the hell of unhappiness, 0:12:58.872,0:13:02.787 and that's because Len, like most of you, 0:13:02.811,0:13:04.873 is enormously capable of flow. 0:13:04.897,0:13:07.871 When he walks onto the floor[br]of the American Exchange 0:13:07.895,0:13:09.645 at 9:30 in the morning, 0:13:10.158,0:13:11.449 time stops for him. 0:13:11.473,0:13:13.235 And it stops till the closing bell. 0:13:13.259,0:13:16.159 When the first card is played[br]till 10 days later, 0:13:16.183,0:13:17.541 when the tournament is over, 0:13:17.565,0:13:18.975 time stops for Len. 0:13:19.676,0:13:22.888 And this is indeed[br]what Mike Csikszentmihalyi 0:13:22.912,0:13:24.814 has been talking about, about flow. 0:13:24.838,0:13:28.215 And it's distinct from pleasure[br]in a very important way: 0:13:28.239,0:13:33.643 pleasure has raw feel -- you know[br]it's happening; it's thought and feeling. 0:13:33.667,0:13:36.756 But what Mike told you[br]yesterday -- during flow ... 0:13:38.919,0:13:41.024 you can't feel anything. 0:13:42.572,0:13:44.223 You're one with the music. 0:13:44.664,0:13:45.917 Time stops. 0:13:45.941,0:13:47.835 You have intense concentration. 0:13:47.859,0:13:52.610 And this is indeed the characteristic[br]of what we think of as the good life. 0:13:53.102,0:13:55.887 And we think there's a recipe for it, 0:13:55.911,0:13:58.505 and it's knowing what[br]your highest strengths are -- 0:13:58.529,0:14:00.823 again, there's a valid test 0:14:00.847,0:14:03.230 of what your five highest strengths are -- 0:14:03.254,0:14:05.983 and then re-crafting your life 0:14:06.007,0:14:09.267 to use them as much as you possibly can. 0:14:09.291,0:14:11.976 Re-crafting your work, your love, 0:14:12.000,0:14:14.757 your play, your friendship,[br]your parenting. 0:14:14.781,0:14:16.361 Just one example. 0:14:17.088,0:14:20.696 One person I worked with[br]was a bagger at Genuardi's. 0:14:21.156,0:14:22.321 Hated the job. 0:14:22.345,0:14:24.238 She's working her way through college. 0:14:24.769,0:14:27.904 Her highest strength[br]was social intelligence. 0:14:27.928,0:14:32.643 So she re-crafted bagging[br]to make the encounter with her 0:14:32.667,0:14:35.438 the social highlight[br]of every customer's day. 0:14:35.922,0:14:37.638 Now, obviously she failed. 0:14:37.662,0:14:40.976 But what she did was to take[br]her highest strengths, 0:14:41.000,0:14:44.408 and re-craft work to use them[br]as much as possible. 0:14:45.000,0:14:47.348 What you get out of that[br]is not smiley-ness. 0:14:47.372,0:14:49.275 You don't look like Debbie Reynolds. 0:14:49.299,0:14:50.703 You don't giggle a lot. 0:14:50.727,0:14:53.313 What you get is more absorption. 0:14:54.000,0:14:56.074 So, that's the second path. 0:14:56.098,0:14:58.450 The first path, positive emotion; 0:14:58.474,0:15:01.570 the second path is eudaemonian flow; 0:15:01.594,0:15:03.976 and the third path is meaning. 0:15:04.000,0:15:07.976 This is the most venerable[br]of the happinesses, traditionally. 0:15:08.000,0:15:11.499 And meaning, in this view, consists of -- 0:15:11.523,0:15:14.443 very parallel to eudaemonia -- 0:15:14.467,0:15:18.030 it consists of knowing[br]what your highest strengths are, 0:15:18.054,0:15:22.697 and using them to belong to[br]and in the service of 0:15:22.721,0:15:24.864 something larger than you are. 0:15:26.922,0:15:30.174 I mentioned that for all three[br]kinds of lives -- 0:15:31.247,0:15:34.590 the pleasant life, the good life,[br]the meaningful life -- 0:15:34.614,0:15:36.778 people are now[br]hard at work on the question: 0:15:36.802,0:15:40.729 Are there things that lastingly[br]change those lives? 0:15:41.768,0:15:44.767 And the answer seems to be yes. 0:15:44.791,0:15:47.346 And I'll just give you some samples of it. 0:15:47.370,0:15:49.534 It's being done in a rigorous manner. 0:15:49.558,0:15:52.395 It's being done in the same way[br]that we test drugs 0:15:52.419,0:15:54.028 to see what really works. 0:15:54.513,0:15:59.326 So we do random-assignment,[br]placebo-controlled, 0:15:59.350,0:16:02.197 long-term studies[br]of different interventions. 0:16:02.221,0:16:06.726 Just to sample the kind of interventions[br]that we find have an effect: 0:16:06.750,0:16:09.976 when we teach people[br]about the pleasant life, 0:16:10.000,0:16:11.976 how to have more pleasure in your life, 0:16:12.000,0:16:16.019 one of your assignments[br]is to take the mindfulness skills, 0:16:16.043,0:16:18.458 the savoring skills, 0:16:18.482,0:16:21.240 and you're assigned[br]to design a beautiful day. 0:16:22.173,0:16:27.187 Next Saturday, set a day aside,[br]design yourself a beautiful day, 0:16:27.211,0:16:31.405 and use savoring and mindfulness[br]to enhance those pleasures. 0:16:31.429,0:16:35.930 And we can show in that way[br]that the pleasant life is enhanced. 0:16:37.738,0:16:38.962 Gratitude visit. 0:16:41.083,0:16:43.739 I want you all to do this[br]with me now, if you would. 0:16:43.763,0:16:45.011 Close your eyes. 0:16:46.812,0:16:51.156 I'd like you to remember someone 0:16:51.180,0:16:54.228 who did something enormously important 0:16:54.252,0:16:57.976 that changed your life[br]in a good direction, 0:16:58.000,0:16:59.933 and who you never properly thanked. 0:17:01.147,0:17:02.636 The person has to be alive. 0:17:04.000,0:17:06.163 Now, OK, you can open your eyes. 0:17:06.187,0:17:08.521 I hope all of you have such a person. 0:17:08.545,0:17:12.143 Your assignment, when you're learning[br]the gratitude visit, 0:17:12.167,0:17:15.816 is to write a 300-word[br]testimonial to that person, 0:17:16.534,0:17:18.463 call them on the phone in Phoenix, 0:17:19.161,0:17:21.808 ask if you can visit, don't tell them why. 0:17:21.832,0:17:23.335 Show up at their door, 0:17:24.299,0:17:28.296 you read the testimonial --[br]everyone weeps when this happens. 0:17:29.579,0:17:32.481 And what happens is, when we test people 0:17:32.505,0:17:35.624 one week later, a month later,[br]three months later, 0:17:35.648,0:17:38.306 they're both happier and less depressed. 0:17:39.722,0:17:42.057 Another example is a strengths date, 0:17:42.081,0:17:46.263 in which we get couples to identify[br]their highest strengths 0:17:46.287,0:17:47.662 on the strengths test, 0:17:47.686,0:17:52.767 and then to design an evening[br]in which they both use their strengths. 0:17:52.791,0:17:56.284 We find this is a strengthener[br]of relationships. 0:17:56.788,0:17:58.762 And fun versus philanthropy. 0:17:58.786,0:18:01.506 It's so heartening[br]to be in a group like this, 0:18:01.530,0:18:05.130 in which so many of you have turned[br]your lives to philanthropy. 0:18:05.154,0:18:08.812 Well, my undergraduates and the people[br]I work with haven't discovered this, 0:18:08.836,0:18:11.644 so we actually have people[br]do something altruistic 0:18:12.422,0:18:14.086 and do something fun, 0:18:14.197,0:18:15.351 and contrast it. 0:18:15.375,0:18:17.976 And what you find[br]is when you do something fun, 0:18:18.000,0:18:19.889 it has a square wave walk set. 0:18:19.913,0:18:23.549 When you do something philanthropic[br]to help another person, 0:18:23.573,0:18:25.662 it lasts and it lasts. 0:18:26.526,0:18:30.046 So those are examples[br]of positive interventions. 0:18:30.680,0:18:34.096 So the next to last thing[br]I want to say is: 0:18:35.000,0:18:38.119 we're interested in how much[br]life satisfaction people have. 0:18:38.143,0:18:40.083 This is really what you're about. 0:18:40.107,0:18:41.976 And that's our target variable. 0:18:42.000,0:18:45.976 And we ask the question as a function[br]of the three different lives, 0:18:46.000,0:18:48.216 how much life satisfaction do you get? 0:18:48.747,0:18:51.852 So we ask -- and we've done this[br]in 15 replications, 0:18:51.876,0:18:54.254 involving thousands of people: 0:18:54.278,0:18:56.773 To what extent does[br]the pursuit of pleasure, 0:18:56.797,0:18:58.569 the pursuit of positive emotion, 0:18:59.143,0:19:00.317 the pleasant life, 0:19:00.341,0:19:03.749 the pursuit of engagement,[br]time stopping for you, 0:19:03.773,0:19:07.147 and the pursuit of meaning[br]contribute to life satisfaction? 0:19:07.171,0:19:10.765 And our results surprised us;[br]they were backward of what we thought. 0:19:10.789,0:19:14.293 It turns out the pursuit of pleasure[br]has almost no contribution 0:19:14.317,0:19:15.976 to life satisfaction. 0:19:16.000,0:19:18.529 The pursuit of meaning is the strongest. 0:19:18.553,0:19:22.700 The pursuit of engagement[br]is also very strong. 0:19:23.000,0:19:27.634 Where pleasure matters[br]is if you have both engagement 0:19:27.658,0:19:29.267 and you have meaning, 0:19:29.291,0:19:31.580 then pleasure's the whipped[br]cream and the cherry. 0:19:31.604,0:19:38.122 Which is to say, the full life --[br]the sum is greater than the parts, 0:19:38.146,0:19:39.552 if you've got all three. 0:19:39.576,0:19:42.818 Conversely, if you have none[br]of the three, the empty life, 0:19:42.842,0:19:44.499 the sum is less than the parts. 0:19:44.523,0:19:48.774 And what we're asking now is:[br]Does the very same relationship -- 0:19:48.798,0:19:53.741 physical health, morbidity,[br]how long you live and productivity -- 0:19:53.765,0:19:55.174 follow the same relationship? 0:19:55.198,0:19:57.676 That is, in a corporation, 0:19:57.700,0:20:03.539 is productivity a function of positive[br]emotion, engagement and meaning? 0:20:03.563,0:20:06.730 Is health a function[br]of positive engagement, 0:20:06.754,0:20:09.491 of pleasure, and of meaning in life? 0:20:09.515,0:20:13.730 And there is reason to think the answer[br]to both of those may well be yes. 0:20:16.204,0:20:20.633 So, Chris said that the last[br]speaker had a chance 0:20:20.657,0:20:23.078 to try to integrate what he heard, 0:20:23.102,0:20:24.808 and so this was amazing for me. 0:20:24.832,0:20:28.126 I've never been in a gathering like this. 0:20:28.801,0:20:32.525 I've never seen speakers stretch[br]beyond themselves so much, 0:20:32.549,0:20:34.621 which was one of the remarkable things. 0:20:35.000,0:20:38.976 But I found that the problems[br]of psychology seemed to be parallel 0:20:39.000,0:20:43.215 to the problems of technology,[br]entertainment and design 0:20:43.239,0:20:44.714 in the following way: 0:20:44.738,0:20:48.220 we all know that technology,[br]entertainment and design 0:20:48.244,0:20:53.244 have been and can be used[br]for destructive purposes. 0:20:54.371,0:20:58.526 We also know that technology,[br]entertainment and design 0:20:58.550,0:21:01.069 can be used to relieve misery. 0:21:01.551,0:21:04.976 And by the way, the distinction[br]between relieving misery 0:21:05.000,0:21:07.976 and building happiness[br]is extremely important. 0:21:08.000,0:21:11.611 I thought, when I first became[br]a therapist 30 years ago, 0:21:11.635,0:21:16.976 that if I was good enough[br]to make someone not depressed, 0:21:17.000,0:21:20.048 not anxious, not angry, 0:21:20.867,0:21:22.333 that I'd make them happy. 0:21:22.902,0:21:24.277 And I never found that; 0:21:24.301,0:21:26.323 I found the best you could ever do 0:21:26.347,0:21:27.749 was to get to zero; 0:21:28.350,0:21:29.564 that they were empty. 0:21:29.588,0:21:35.194 And it turns out the skills of happiness,[br]the skills of the pleasant life, 0:21:35.218,0:21:37.589 the skills of engagement,[br]the skills of meaning, 0:21:37.613,0:21:41.764 are different from the skills[br]of relieving misery. 0:21:42.335,0:21:47.706 And so, the parallel thing holds[br]with technology, entertainment 0:21:47.730,0:21:49.303 and design, I believe. 0:21:49.327,0:21:56.206 That is, it is possible[br]for these three drivers of our world 0:21:56.230,0:21:58.445 to increase happiness, 0:21:58.758,0:22:01.646 to increase positive emotion. 0:22:01.670,0:22:03.857 And that's typically[br]how they've been used. 0:22:03.881,0:22:06.491 But once you fractionate[br]happiness the way I do -- 0:22:06.903,0:22:09.976 not just positive emotion,[br]that's not nearly enough -- 0:22:10.000,0:22:13.133 there's flow in life,[br]and there's meaning in life. 0:22:13.506,0:22:14.976 As Laura Lee told us, 0:22:15.000,0:22:18.668 design and, I believe,[br]entertainment and technology, 0:22:18.692,0:22:23.423 can be used to increase meaning[br]engagement in life as well. 0:22:23.447,0:22:25.067 So in conclusion, 0:22:25.091,0:22:27.518 the eleventh reason for optimism, 0:22:27.542,0:22:30.717 in addition to the space elevator, 0:22:30.741,0:22:35.872 is that I think with technology,[br]entertainment and design, 0:22:35.896,0:22:39.644 we can actually increase[br]the amount of tonnage 0:22:39.668,0:22:41.918 of human happiness on the planet. 0:22:42.521,0:22:46.784 And if technology can,[br]in the next decade or two, 0:22:46.808,0:22:50.672 increase the pleasant life,[br]the good life and the meaningful life, 0:22:50.696,0:22:52.186 it will be good enough. 0:22:52.210,0:22:57.815 If entertainment can be diverted[br]to also increase positive emotion, 0:22:57.967,0:23:01.061 meaning eudaemonia, 0:23:01.085,0:23:02.524 it will be good enough. 0:23:02.548,0:23:07.114 And if design can increase[br]positive emotion, 0:23:08.582,0:23:11.577 eudaemonia, and flow and meaning, 0:23:11.601,0:23:15.140 what we're all doing together[br]will become good enough. 0:23:15.164,0:23:16.343 Thank you. 0:23:16.367,0:23:22.169 (Applause)