Ask a friend what makes them unhappy, and get ready for a long long list.
Ask a friend what makes them happy and listen. for a pause.The fact is, while happiness is a goal for most everyone, social scientists don't know a lot about how it works, how to achieve it, or how to keep it. But that might be changing. This week, Berkley University launched a new "Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being." I know what you're thinking; so California. But let's face it. If psychologists and economists and the rest can get beyond angst and figure out what it is that makes us happy, don't you want to know?
Think beyond money, beyond Zanex, think about the purity of a child's joy, and imagine tapping into that.
Dacher Keltner, social psychologist and founding director of the Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being, University of California at Berkeley
David Myers, Professor of Psychology at Hope College
