Why Are We Happy - Essay Example

Why Are We Happy? Happiness is an interesting that people can relate to since it is one of the greatest emotionsthat impose positivity. It is essential that people learn more about the complexities of human feelings in order to help us cope to different issues that can be face in life. The presentation of Dan Gilbert in one of the TED Talks revolved in answering the question, “Why are we happy?” Its purpose is to contest the common idea that humans will be doomed if they fail in getting what they want. First, he gave the information that the human brain became triple in size and gained complex structures such as the frontal lobe and pre-frontal cortex after millions of years due to evolution. Because of this, humans developed intelligence and the capacity to alter deep emotions. Then he explained about the unique psychological immune system which makes people adapt and eventually accept whatever fate set. In his speech, Gilbert had broken down happiness in two categories: Synthetic and Natural. As he noted, “Natural happiness is when we get what we wanted and Synthetic Happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we wanted.” (“TED Talks: Dan Gilbert asks…”). Normally, people will think that synthetic happiness is not true happiness but a defence mechanism to avoid hurting our egos. However, based on the studies that the speaker presented, it is scientifically proven that people tend to accept the end result of whatever decisions that they make no matter how unfortunate it is, and eventually become truly happy about it. To illustrate this, he exhibited a study between the percentage of happiness of lottery winners and paraplegics after a year. The data showed that the level of happiness between the two groups of people were equal. The lottery winners might have a higher level of happiness in the beginning but it evened out during the course of the year. This is because the mind has the capacity to synthesize happiness thus it can alter the initial response to a situation into a better one. As Gilbert explained, “The fact is, year after they lose their leg, and a year after winning the lotto, lottery winners and paraplegics are equally happy with their lives… The research that my laboratory has been doing… had revealed something really startling to us. Something that we call the impact bias is the tendency for the simulator to work badly. For the simulator to make you believe that different outcomes are more different than the fact that they really are.” (“TED Talks: Dan Gilbert asks…”). During the presentation, it can be observed that the speaker connects to the audience and everybody seems to be actually listening throughout the whole time. Noticeably, the three elements of effective arguments or appeals by Aristotle, ethos, pathos and logos, were essentially delivered. Ethos refers to the appeal to character of the speaker (Kennedy). It further demonstrates that if the speaker is credible, reliable or respected enough, his audience will actually believe the message that he’s trying to convey. This appeal has been remarkably conveyed by the featured TED speaker, Dan Gilbert. He is a professor of Psychology at Harvard University with a doctorate degree in Social Psychology from Princeton University. He wrote the international bestseller ‘Stumbling on Happiness’ and received awards for his teaching and research (Weich). With the numerous proof of his character, he has proven that what he’s saying is factual and credible enough to believe in. The conference where Gilbert presented his speech was produced by TED, a non-profit organization that aims to nurture the spread of great ideas from credible and inspiring speakers (Weich). On the other hand, Pathos appeals to the emotions and memories of the audience (Kennedy). In ‘Why Are We Happy?, Gilbert effectively connected with the viewers by offering common situations that everybody can relate to such as accruing power and prestige but losing it and dropping the chance of being popular, among others. He spoke with ease and in a fast-paced and entertaining manner, delivered brilliant anecdotes of the human struggles in everyday life, our pursuit to happiness and how we deal with disappointments. He changes his tone every now and then to emphasize different emotions and provided vivid metaphors to stress his point. Take note that he avoided too much grandeur in presenting his speech, perhaps so that the viewers will not be distracted and thus concentrate on his message. He dressed casually, provided simple visuals with pictures of persons related to the flow of the topic, and used an unassuming stage with no props at all. Lastly, Logos refers to the logical appeal or the argument that rely to intelligence and reasoning (Kennedy). In the said presentation, the speaker presented facts in the form of clinical studies that he and other researchers conducted, cited book definitions and academic references that were drawn from psychology and neuroscience. He gave quotations from notable personalities as well as from normal people to support his claim that everyone can experience natural and synthetic happiness. To prove his point, Gilbert even read a powerful statement from Adam Smith from the Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759 to conclude his speech, The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another… Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate either of prudence or of justice or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice. (“TED Talks: Dan Gilbert asks…”). During the course of the talk, the speaker developed his ideas using description, definition and comparison and contrast as rhetorical patterns of development. At the beginning, Gilbert gave clear and vivid description of how humans developed intelligence and emotions and how these functions affect our outlook in life. He gave examples of situations where people are subject to loss and unpleasant circumstances. He then defined the terms used in the speech such as ‘what is a prefrontal cortex?’, and ‘what is the meaning of natural and synthetic happiness?’ (“TED Talks: Dan Gilbert asks…”). In addition, Gilbert gave a comparison and contrast of how people felt before and after a certain significant event in their lives and the reaction of the subjects in the clinical researches that he made. For instance, he explained that humans have a tendency to adapt and be truly happy to any kind of end result of a previous decision. He expounded about his study on patients with anterograde amnesia. Compared with normal controls, the patients also showed the same percentage in the change of liking in the choice of the Monet prints offered to them. He furthered that the ability of humans to produce happiness makes them change their response to an object or event. No matter how unfortunate the results may be, humans have the ability to turn it into a favourable one. Nevertheless, Gilbert just proved that synthetic happiness also equates to real happiness. After watching “Why are we happy?” I was amazed on how a simple question can transform a normal belief into a scientific exploration. Everybody knows that when there is a feeling of happiness about something, it is common that people disregard to answer the question ‘why?’. The truthfulness of the situations given by Gilbert and the unpretentious way of presenting them caught my attention and made me listen to the speech. It made me reflect about my feelings and how I handle problems and challenges in life. By presenting a topic which everybody can relate to, Gilbert founded a way to connect with the audience and awaken their interest. At the end of the presentation, I was able to understand the reason why people can move on from problems and disasters, how people can accept losing a loved one, admit failure or go again with their lives after a crisis. So we really do tend to become happy after all. And with several people trying to find the real meaning of happiness, my two scents worth is that we don’t need to look for it. Happiness can be achieved in any situation that we may have. It’s just around the corner after all. Works Cited Kennedy, G.A. and Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Ed. George Alexander Kennedy. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 2007. Print. TED Talks: Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy? TED. 2004. Web. 8 June 2012. Weich, D. Daniel Gilbert Stumbles onto Something Big. n.d. Web. 9 June 2012. Read More