The economics of being happy

THE discipline of 'happynomics,' otherwise known as 'the economics of subjective well-being,' is a field where respected economists are joining in. Whether this discipline will be able to help every person to remain happy is unclear; however, economists have managed to get some insights into what can help us being content.
Tim Harford, widely known as 'The Undercover Economist,' recently provided four tips as to how to be happy.
Number one: never be distracted by the obvious. For example, when buying a new car, it is obvious to imagine the amount of compliments one will get for it; or when buying a new apartment it is natural to visualise the pleasure of hosting friends and family at the roomy dining table.
However these thoughts fall prey to what psychologists call “the focusing illusion.” Due to this, many are influenced by attractions because they are focused on them just at the moment they decide. Because at the end of the day the functionalities of these new buys are important: it is difficult to drive a BMW through the narrow lanes of Dhaka or it turns out that buyers of these huge apartments never manage to throw plenty of elaborate parties for their friends anyway. A woman who buys an extravagant diamond jewelry set with her savings may find herself not using it after a few wears. Rather, it is suggested that more happiness can be attained if this money was used on something that makes her day to day life better.
Number two: pay attention selectively; for instance instead of listing what depresses us, we should count the good things in our lives.
Number three: doing some preparation to make it easier to do what brings us joy. For example: if reading books makes us happy, we can leave books lying around our house and make a plan to visit a literary festival. Or if we like movies, we can set our browser homepages to a movie review site. In other words, we should make our new habits easy to ignore.
Number four: it is important to keep a sense of what is possible. Renowned psychologist, Daniel Kahneman pointed out that much of our happiness is genetically predetermined! As a result, we cannot expect an introverted depressive person to suddenly mingle with everyone and jump with joy. However, he did provide evidence-based suggestions on how having friends and family and make us happier.   

The writer is Head of Research, The Daily Star.