Formula for Happiness?

[SKORPI0]

Equation 'can predict momentary happiness'

It has long been known that happiness depends on many different life circumstances.
Now scientists have developed a mathematical equation that can predict momentary delight.
They found that participants were happiest when they performed better than expected during a risk-reward task.
Brain scans also revealed that happiness scores correlated with areas known to be important for well-being.
The team says the equation, published in PNAS Journal, could be used to look at mood disorders and happiness on a mass scale. It could also help the UK government analyse statistics on well-being, which they have collected since 2010.
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The equation looks at expectations, rewards and past outcomes
"We can look at past decisions and outcomes and predict exactly how happy you will say you are at any point in time," said lead author Dr Robb Rutledge from University College London.
"The brain is trying to figure out what you should be doing in the world to get rewards, so all the decisions, expectations and the outcomes are information it's using to make sure you make good decisions in the future. All of the recent expectations and rewards combine to determine your current state of happiness," he told BBC News.
Think of going to a restaurant for example, having low expectations may improve your dining experience if the food is better than expected. But having positive expectations may improve your happiness before the meal even starts because of your anticipation of the event.
To build the mathematical model, the team analysed the results of 26 people doing a task in which, over repeated trials, they chose between definite and risky monetary rewards. Every few trials they were asked to report their level of happiness
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pdf link to published report - http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/07/31/1407535111.full.pdf+html

 

[purbeast0]

money can buy happiness. you can buy a wave runner with money. you ever seen a person on a wave runner not smiling?

/tosh

 

[OverVolt]

I'm happy because my PNAS is bigger than their pnas and its not in the formula so they need to retake differential equations and try harder next time.

I get random endorphin rushes all the time. I've had one since like 5 o'clock, natural happiness. I truly enjoy the simple things in life. I enjoy a cup of folgers more than a cup of starbucks. I'm on like my 3rd day off in 2.5 weeks even though my job sucks and I'm pretty happy.

When you entrust statistical modeling around averages, you turn everyone into an average. Statistics is constantly trying to scrub out the outliers to make clean data. You'd be better off looking at the outliers, like people who don't fit any of that criteria and are happy nonetheless. Except it doesn't fit into a quantitative computer model and all anyone cares about these days in science is showing that "p>0.05 and further research is needed."

I'd much rather read about a monk who had a terrible life and is happy anyway so I too can learn to be an outlier and be happy no matter what some (I will give them credit for it being difficult and statistically correct) piece of shit formula that's probably wrong anyway in the real world.