Jim Axelrod
Journalist and Author of In The Long Run
Jim’s Blog
Getting in tune with happiness
Most of the time in this space, I post a “dispatch from the front.” Happiness has become an issue that’s grabbing a lot of attention in our culture, and not just in traditional academic circles like psychiatry, psychology, and sociology. Look at the bestseller lists. Check out marketing campaigns. Google “happiness.” It’s everywhere. There is [...]
Happiness: it’s in the blood
We’ve all got that sad-sack friend or grumpy uncle. You know the guy. If he won the lottery, he’d complain about the taxes. It almost seems like he’s constitutionally incapable of finding any lasting happiness. Psychologist Fred Luskin says that’s absolutely right. “Happiness,” says Luskin, a professor at Stanford, “is about 50 percent genetic. And [...]
Want to be happy? Don’t just sit there
Experiences beat possessions. Everytime. If you’ve got limited money, cautions the professor to his students, spend it on a great vacation, not a new stereo or a closet full of new clothes. Every year, during his first lecture in his “Introduction to Social Psychology Course” at Cornell University, Professor Tom Gilovich, greets his students with some [...]