Nancy Etcoff on the surprising science of happiness

http://www.ted.com Cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff looks at happiness -- the ways we try to achieve and increase it, the way it's untethered to our real circumstances, and its surprising effect on our bodies.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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Science & Technology

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• Nancy
• Etcoff
• TEDTalks
• TED
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• psychology
• happiness
• brain
• sex

[austpom333]

Freud was a nut

[newo82]

"The lazy, not very intelligent and not talented or skilled people are the ones towards the bottom of the pyramid"

Cant help but think of George Bush after reading that post.

[PADillaLuiz]

pesquisadora cognitiva Nancy Etcoff analisa a felicidade — os meios que usamos para alcançá-la e aumentá-la, como está ligada à nossas circunstâncias reais, e seu surpreendente efeito em nossos corpos.

[MutantBamHammer]

MILK

[vaidotas86]

MILF

[dalindes]

There IS a word for taking happiness from the happiness of others (mentioned about 7:50 in)!

The word is: Compersion.

It hasn't made it into all the dictionaries yet, so let's get it there.

[Icc4rus]

I think happiness is achieved subconsciously, so if we try and see what makes us happy and try and do it and do it all the time and thinking about how we are going to be happy then we will never be happy. Don't try to be happy, feel happy.

[bentothetenthpower]

Your comment is pointless.

[Scofield0085]

This was pointless. She was rambling.

[skliris80]

What you say is undoubtably correct, but the problem is that these laws apply to longer living organisms than us. What i mean is that, if we could survive for a million years we would be able to be discussing patterns through time, but for us, these string-theory level of default can only be translated as random dynamic changing...

[GregorJMendel]

Still, we are able to give a prediction, with a considerable amount of error, of which will be the fate of a creature in the evolutionary time, within a predefined environment.