512-Strangers on a Train Experiment pt 2

When you are told about an experiment, you could assume you may guess the right answer before receiving the results....however, this group was dead WRONG about which answer leads to happiness. Tune in to find out! 

 

Transcript:

 

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I've been so interested in this experiment by social psychologist, professor and researcher out of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Nick Epley.  

 

Yesterday we went through the initial experiment.  Today, we take it one step further. 

 

So, just like the researchers see over and over again in experiments, and the findings from the experiment in yesterday’s episode, connecting with another person was pleasant, it improves your well-being and improves your mood. So, the question is, why don't people do it? 

 

Well to test that, they ran a second experiment. Where they told people about their experiment, and each of the different groups, and asked them to predict how they would feel if they were in each of these different conditions. 

 

This doesn't measure actual experience of course, this measures people's expectations, about how they would feel, and what they would expect. They expected that they would be the happiest in the solitude group, that they would be the least happy in the connection group - where they had to talk to strangers. 

 

So, not only were their expectations miscalibrated, they were precisely backwards, to what Epley and his team saw when they ran people through those actual conditions. Which we discussed in the previous episode. 

 

What we know is that connecting with strangers turns out to be surprisingly pleasant.

 

And, as a side note, one of the questions that was asked in the initial experiment was to ask the volunteers how productive their commute was. Epley and team didn't get any differences across the three groups in productivity. So thinking you are going to be productive isn’t actually a hindrance to happiness if you want to engage in a little social connection.

 

 

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