A morose state of mind can distort even the happiest memories.
Your Back Page scribbler is a huge fan of the bullshit motivational quote.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, then imagine memes of a tranquil sunrise or a flowery meadow upon which has been superimposed a nonsensical profundity, such as: “The more we stare at our screens … the less we see”, or “The grass can’t be greener without at least some rainy days”.*
A rich vein of inspiration for the bullshit motivational quote is the concept of “happiness”; the attainment of which is either “elusive” or “simple”, depending on the quote reader’s existing perspective.
But don’t take our word for this. There’s actual science out there that supports this proposition.
According to psychology researchers at University College London, Oxford and the Sorbonne, one reason happiness can seem elusive for many folks is because their current feelings can interfere with their memories of past wellbeing.
Presenting data from longitudinal studies in research published in the journal, Psychological Science,they say that people who are currently unhappy tend to underestimate how happy they may have felt in earlier times, and vice versa.
“Happy people tend to overstate the improvement of their life satisfaction over time, whereas unhappy ones tend to overstate the deterioration of their level of happiness. This indicates a certain confusion between feeling happy and feeling better,” the authors told media.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers analysed results from four separate surveys of people from Germany, Britain, France and the United States.
For example, in the German survey more than 11,000 people were asked to rate, on a scale of one to 10, how satisfied they were with their lives over the 10 years from 2006. Then, in 2016, respondents were also asked to select one of nine line graphs that best reflected the trajectory of their life satisfaction over the past decade.
People who reported higher current life satisfaction were more likely to select a chart illustrating continuous improvement. People with middling satisfaction were likelier to select a chart illustrating slight improvement, and people who reported lower current life satisfaction were likelier to select a chart illustrating dips in their well-being.
These trends were reflected in the British, French and US surveys which used similar methodologies for recording happiness levels.
“People are able to recall how they used to feel about their life, but they also tend to mix this memory with the way they currently feel,” the authors said.
“It thus seems that feeling happy today implies feeling better than yesterday. This recall structure has implications for motivated memory and learning and could explain why happy people are more optimistic, perceive risks to be lower, and are more open to new experiences.”
We’re happy to hear that!
*For more bullshit motivational quotes, google British comedian Joe Lycett.
If you feel motivated to share profound insights, you’ll make penny@medicalrepublic.com.au a very happy editor.
