3. "The surprising science of hapiness"

The “The surprising science of happiness” by Dan Gilbert talks about the term synthetic happiness and some studies that avail it. First, it mentions the importance of the brain, that It has evolved since the prehistoric times, being bigger than before and how it had developed more structures and cognitive process that made us adapt better (like the formation of the pre-frontal cortex). In that context the synthetic happiness was created. Later, he explained the importance of the situations and general context that we experience in our lives, giving some examples about it, like the one with the pictures of the winning lottery/paraplegic, the photography study in Harvard, or the study done with amnesiac people. The important part of the talk was the realization that the synthetic happiness is equally real than the natural happiness, with the difference that the synthetic happiness is developed when we don’t have a choice, and the natural when we have freedom of our choice and achieve what we want.

In my opinion, even though it has some serious studies that avail the synthetic happiness and I don’t deny its value, I think the approach that he does is very misleading for people who don’t understand it well. Basically, at the end of the speech he tells people to don’t pursue natural happiness because it’s more risky, and the “safe way” is to pursue the synthetic happiness. That’s a terrifying thought because people who become conformist are more easily controlled, and even they could lose the will to pursue goals, because “they will be happy either way”. I would explain it more profoundly, but I will do it another time, because the time is up. Thanks for reading!