Script ”How happy can you be”

English translation.

Dialogue
Subtitles
Insert titles
animation

00.02.00.

Er det bare positivt å være positiv. Jeg er grunnleggende negativ, kritisk kranglende, grublende problemfokusert, vrang og vanskelig. Men jeg har skjerpa meg. Jeg forsøker å bli mer positiv, litt lysere til sinns, litt mer som de andre

Is it only a positive thing to be positive? I am fundamentally negative, broodingly critical, problem oriented, argumentative and difficult. But I am getting my act togethe. I amr trying to be more positive, more lighthearted, more like the other (most) people.

00.02.35

og nå har forskningen kommet meg til unnsetning. Flere og flere anerkjente forskere har begynt å undersøke hvordan vi skal ordne livene våre for å bli lykkeligst mulig. Formålet er at med vitenskaplige rasjonelle målemetoder skal vi finne ut hvordan vi alle sammen kan bli lykkeligere her på jorda.

And now scientific research has come to my rescue. An increasing number of scientists investigate how we can arrange our lives in order to be as happy as possible. By using rational and sicentific measures, how can all of us be happier on our earth.

00.03.02

Håndfaste tips basert på empirisk forskning – det er akkurat noe for meg. En guide til hvordan å bli lykkeligst mulig. Det er bare en ting som bekymrer meg. Er det bare positivt å være positiv?

Concrete tips based on empirical research - that sounds right up my alley. A scientific guide to happiness. I am just worried about one thing. Is it just positive to be so positive?

00.03.24 Title sequence

Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky ved University of California er en av de mest lovende psykologene innen det nye fagfeltet positiv psykologi.

Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California is one of the most promising psychologists in the new field positive psychology.

00.04.09

I actually think that happiness is a kind of like an equaliser, because it’s accessible to everyone , I mean, almost anyone who wants to become happier can become happier. Not everyone can be a filmmaker, not everyone can make more money in the world, but, but I think almost everyone can become happier if they really work hard at it.

00.04.22 16
Sonja Lyubomirsky
Professor of psychology
UCLA Riverside

Da er det jo bare å brette opp ermene

Just have to roll up my sleeves then

00.04.32

Om lag 2000 forskere i verden har sluttet å forske på problemer og konsentrerer seg i stedet om hvordan vi kan gå fra å ha det bra til å ha det ennå bedre. Psykologer spør hvordan vi kan handle for å bli lykkeligst mulig. Antropologer reiser verden rundt for å finne ut hvilke folkeslag som er mest lykkelige. Sosiologer prøver å finne ut hvor mange år kan vi forvente å leve lykkelige i ulike land?

Around 2000 scientists worldwide have stopped researching problems and have started to focus on how we can make progress, from a good life to a great life. Psychologists ask which acts make us the happiest. Anthropologists travel the world to see which peoples are the happiest? While sociologists investigate how many years of happiness we can expect, across the world.

00.05.16

The number of happy life years well it’s almost 60

Hjerneforskere forsøker å måle lykke i hjernen. Rekorden hittil tilhører en buddhistisk munk. Fokuset på positive emosjoner gjelder ikke bare mennesker, men sprer seg også til dyr og planter.

Planter overvåkes for å se om de kan uttrykke trivsel. Og kyr dopes for å finne ut hvordan de uttrykker positive følelser.

Seriøs forskning utføres av vitenskapsmenn ved anerkjente universiteter, alt for at vi skal finne ut hvordan vi kan bli ennå lykkeligere.

Brain researchers try to measure happiness in the brain. The current record is held by a buddhist monk. The sientific focus on positive emotions is not limited to humans, but includes animals and even plants

Plants are being monitored to see if they can express well-being and cows are drugged to see how they express positive emotions.

Scientists from distinguished universities conduct serious research to find out how we can become even happier.

00.06.07.13
Robert Biswas-Diener
Independent researcher

People in laboratory studies seem to be more creative, when they’re put into a happy mood, you know if if you think of something happy or your’re told a joke or you watch a funny movie, you can do more creative problemsolving, better, more effectivly

00.06.22.13
Ed Diener
Professor of Psychology
University of Illinois

Happy people are more sociable, so they’re more likely to get married, stay married and have happy marriages and not get divorced. They’re more likely to get a job in the first place, to get raises, to make more money. They’re more likely to do volunteer work. They’re more likely even live longer.

00.06.42

I følge forskningen kan et gjennomsnittsmenneske forvente et lykkenivå på mellom seks og sju på en skala fra en til ti.

Research shows that the average human can expect a happiness level of between 6 and 7 on a scale from 1 to 10.

Jeg når ikke helt opp dit ennå. Det er ikke det at jeg er ulykkelig. Jeg kunne bare godt tenke meg å bli litt lykkeligere enn det jeg allerede er.

I’m not quite there yet. It’s not that I’m unhappy, it’s just that I can see myself being a little bit happier than I am now.

00.07.01

Jeg veit godt at det aldri blir noe av men maksimal lykke for meg ville vært en tur til månen. Det er jo dumt å være knuslete i drømme.

Even though I know it’s never going to happen – ultimate happiness for me is a trip to the moon. I don’t wanna sell myself short in dreams.

00.07.11

Lykke kan måles som økt aktivitet foran i venstre hjernehalvdel.

Happiness can be measured as increased activity in the left prefrontal side of the brain.,

Jeg har aldri helt klart å definere hva lykke er,
annet enn at når jeg føler meg lykkelig så er jeg det. Forskerne har kommet til litt mer konkrete definisjoner

I’ve never managed to define what happiness is,
except that when I feel happy I am happy. Scientists have come up with more precise definitions.

Lykke = P + (5xE) + (3xH)
Likning for lykke: (1)r=h(u(y,z,t)) + E

Happiness =

The equation of happiness:

00.07.49

kampen for å bli lykkelig er jeg ikke alene om
hele nasjoner bygger sin eksistens på jakten på emosjon.

I am not alone in my struggle.. Whole nations are founded on the pursuit for an emotion.

All men are entitled to the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That’s the goal we set for ourselves.

Thomas Jefferson hadde kanskje en litt sterkere formuleringsevne en min venninne lise men budskapet i minneboka mi er det samme som budskapet i USAs uavhengighetserklæring

lev livet lykkelig

Thomas Jefferson formulated it more elegantly than my friend Lise, but her message in my memory book bears the same message as The American Declaration of Independence.

Live life happily.

00.08.33

Aldri har flere amerikanere lykkes bedre med oppfordringen fra uavhengighetserklæringen enn på femtitallet.

At USA på femtitallet, med tellekant i skapet og trimmete rosebusker i hagene, var så nær idealsamfunnet finner jeg litt overraskende. På en skala fra en til ti stagnerte Amerikanerne på 7,2.

The Americans have never been as close to ideal than during the 1950s. Personally I find it quite surprising that American life in the fifties with their housewifesand pruned rosebushes was so close to the ideal society.
On a scale from one to ten, the Americans levelled (stagnated) at 7,2

00.08.59

Franskmennenes lykkenivå stagnerte på 70 tallet. Og nordmennene har ikke økt lykkenivået sitt de siste 20 åra.

The happiness level of the French stagnated during the seventies. And the Norwegians have not increased their happiness level for the past 20 years.

Men forskerne mener at det burde være mulig for oss å nå høyere.

But scientists believe that it should be possible for us to reach even higher levels.

00.09.12.09
Dr Ruut Veenhoven
Director
World Database of Happiness

Well if you had asked me that 20 years before, I would have said that well, more than 8 on a 10 point scale – I would have said that 8 would be the maximum but now we see Switzerland at around 8,1 so my next question is 8,5.

00.09.33

For å kunne rådgi verdens regjeringer har professor Ruut Veenhoven ved World Database of Happiness i Rotterdam samlet 8000 forskningsrapporter med lykkedata fra 120 land i verden.

Professor Ruut Veenhoven at the World Database of Happiness in Rotterdam has gathered 8000 research studies with happiness data from 120 countries

00.09.41.15
THE WORLD DATABASE OF HAPPINESS
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

00.09.49

Well, how do you measure happiness. Well then the first question is what do you mean by happiness, and with happiness I mean the overall enjoyment of one’s life as a whole. In fact there’s only one way, to ask people how happy they are. And one curious thing is that all over the world people understand that question

00.10.16.11
Qaanaaq
Greenland

Subtitles
00.10.22.16
Gjestene i studio er i gang med en forskningsundersøkelse her i Qaanaaq nå.

The guests in the studio are conducting a research project here in Qaanaaq.

00.10.28.19
Vi er takknemlige for at de vil være med.

We are grateful that they have joined us,

00.10.32.21
Vi vil vite hva slags undersøkelse de driver med her

We want to find out what type of study they are conducting.

We never get that kind of resarch up here so often so it makes us very interested to hear more about it.

00.10.49

My father who is with the university of Illiois is interested in what is going right with peoples lives, what is positive about life, if they live, if feel they live a good life, even in these very faraway places.

Det finnes et utall spekulasjoner om hvorvidt det å leve i kontakt med naturen gjør folk lykkelige. Men Robert Diener er den eneste som faktisk har forsøkt å måle det vitenskapelig – på en skala fra 1 til 7.

There is a lot of speculation as to whether living close to nature makes people happy. Robert Diener is the only one who has actually tried to measure this, scientifically – on a scale from 1 to 7.

00.11.22

I’m doing an international research project on subjective wellbeing, which is the technical word for studying happiness.

00.12.05

We ask people; how much do you agree with this statement. I am satisfied with my life. It’s a pretty general question so it works widely. It works in Africa, it works in Asia, it works in Europe. I mean it’s what we call a good item.

00.12.35

We assume that they’re doing poorly emotionally, we assume that they must be miserable, but not many people are actually going talking to them

00.13.15

We ask them how satisfied they are about what their life in general as well as different specific domains of their life.

00.13.40

Selvfølgelig har jeg opplevd glimt av lykke, men utfordringen ligger i hvordan jeg kan forbli lykkelig over tid.

Sure I’ve experienced glimpes of happiness, but the challenge lies in how to stay happy over a long period of time.

Maybe it’s easy to make yourself happy for a short period of time but how do you sustain that increased level of happiness. My collegues and I have been trying to answer that question.

(Mumbling The one thing I did notice in these)

For å måle hva slags adferd som statistisk sett vil gi mest lykke utfører Sonja og hennes kollega eksperimenter med forsøkpersoner som karakteriserer seg som enten lykkelige eller ulykkelige.

In order to measure the behaviour which statistically produce high happinesslevels, Sonja and her collegues experiment with human test subjects who characterize themselves as either happy or unhappy

00.14.17

Okay, what we’d like you to do is simply rate the desserts, okay, so you have desserts 1 through 8, right, and you’er gonna rate rate each desserts attractiveness, and how much you would like to, how much you would like to

00.14.38.17
On a scale from 1 to 7: How much would you enjoy eating these desserts.
Blueberry danish
Apricot croissant
Fancy donut
Black forest gateau
Tiramisu cake
Glazed donut

00.15.19

Professor Lyubomirskys tidligere eksperimenter har greid å svare på de spørsmålene jeg lurte på som barn

I min barndom ble Mor Theresa med sin nestekjærlighet holdt fram som et ideal.

Jeg lurte på om man egentlig behøvde å være så snill og si takk hele tida.

Svaret er: det lønner seg å være takknemlig, men bare en gang i uka. Hyppigere enn det blir kjedelig.

Post-it: Vær takknemlig 1 gang i uka

Professor Lyubomirsky’s other experiments has answered the questions I pondered on as a child. During my childhood Mother Theresa’s compassion was considered the ideal. I wondered if I really needed to be kind and say grace all the time. The answer is: It pays to be grateful, but just once a week. More than that bores you.

Post-it: be grateful once a week

00.15.56

Det lønner seg bedre å være snill fem ganger på en gang i uka, enn å være litt snill hver dag,

for det er det ingen som legger merke til.

Post-it: Vær snill: 5 ganger 1 dag i uka, men ikke hver dag.

Moder Teresa fikk vel neppe med seg de forskningsresultatene

For at for et gjennomsnittsmenneske som meg skal bli lykkelig så må vi se på tre ulike deler av livet

Being nice five times one day a week works better than being a little nice every day. Because people don’t notice then.

 

In order for the average human like me to be happy we need to examine three different aspects of life.

00.16.23

There are 3 things that are most important to happiness, the first is the life circumstances that a person experiences, is born into.
The second major thing has to do with what we do in our daily lives, sort of intentional activities or behaviour, strategies that we can do everyday to make ourselves happier. And the third category is what has been called the happiness setpoint. It’s a genetically determined set point or set range, and the idea there is that everyone is born with a particular range or point for happiness.

00.16.26.17

What determines happiness?
Circumstances
Intentional activities
Set Point

00.17.04

Det er så deilig å endelig få systematisert det.

Wonderful to get it systematicised!

Det medfødte lykkenivået har de funnet ved å studere eneggede tvillinger som vokser opp hver for seg.

Forskerne har dermed isolert arv fra miljø og slått fast at 50 prosent av lykkenivået er medfødt.

Gjennomsnittlig er 50 prosent av lykkenivået vårt, altså umulig å gjøre noe med.

The happiness set point was found by studying identical twins who have grown up separately.

The scientists separated inheritance from environmental influence and deduced that 50% of our happiness level is set from birth.

00.17.40

Et blikk på mine egne forfedre gir et hint om at jeg kanskje ikke har arvet det beste genetiske materialet for et høyt medfødt lykkenivå,

Det ligger kanskje litt under snittet.

Men det er bare å ta det som en utfordring.

Post-it: lykkelige gener er nødvendig

A glance at my own ancestors hints that perhaps I did not inherit the best genetic material for a high genetic set point. It could well be slightly below average.

Better see it as a challenge.

Post-it: Happy genes are necessary

00.18.13

Ved University of Chicago forsøker sosialnevrolog John Cacioppo å finne ut hva slags lykkenivå de fleste av oss er født med?

Cacioppo har en teori om at evolusjonen har ført til at de aller fleste av oss har et høyt medfødt nivå.

At the University of Chicaco social neurologist John Cacioppo attempts to determine the level of happiness most people are born with. Cacioppo’s theory is that evolution has enabled most of us to be born with a high genetic set point

00.18.34.21
John Cacioppo
Professor of Social Neurology
University of Chicago

The notion is that across species the behavioural system evolved; the brain, central nervous system so that you would approach apetitive and avoid hostile, adversive events in their world.

00.18.47

Those who were motivated just by evolutionary chance to perceive neutral environments as somewhat positive, just a little positive, but enough to explore, then when a predator comes they’re gonna know the geography better and they’ll know better how to escape. They’ll also find out just by exploring perhaps where there’s prey, where there’s predators. So they have an evolutionary advantage over those who just sat in a neutral environment or retreated from a neutral environment. So I think there’s what we call a positive offset, so we think that was selected because of the adapted advantage for those who happen to have that in their genome.

De negative menneskene som meg har rett og slett bukket under i et så stort antall at det har påvirket genene våre.

Negative people like me have succumbed to the extent that it has affected our genes.

 

00.19.52

Robert Dieners datainnsamling på Nordgrønland har Professor Cacioppos tese som utgangspunkt.

Hvis Cacioppos tese stemmer bør inuittene svare at de er lykkelige selv om de lever under harde klimatiske forhold.

Robert Diener uses professor Cacioppos hpothesis as a departing point for his data collecting on Northern Greenland. If Cacioppo’s hypothesis is correct the Inuit should answer that they are happy in spite of living in a very harsh climate.

00.20.10

Can you see him
Yeah
Coming over here
No, he’s in his boat right now, it’s that one right there, you can see him in the back of it.

We very desperately wanted to get people, wanted to get answers about happiness from people while they were engaged in their traditional activities, for example while they were fishing or while they were hunting. And we took off to a fjord where there were a bunch of people fishing. And we pulled up on the beach and we jumped out, and there are three people there.

00.21.00

I mean, when they say that there are more people than fish, it’s just referring to very very few fishes.
I’m glad I came
You know, I

00.21.29

Can you tell them that we’re scientists who study quality of life, what’s going right with life and what’s going wrong with life, and that we travel around the world, and we talk to people and we find out about their lives, and about what makes them feel good, and what’s important to them.

Subtitles

00..22.02.10

That is all right
00.22.09.02

Maybe they can earn a bit....
00.22.35.05

Shall we start.
Just point to the feelings you are experiencing right now
00.22.42.07

How strongly do you feel devotion right now?
00.22.49.16

Joy? six
00.22.54.17

Sadness
00.23.01.05

Guilt? Zero
00.23.05.09

Pride
00.23.10.17

Did you really point at that
Yes
00.23.14.12

Shame

00.23.20

We did find that the Inuit in Greenland like many other groups are happy, they’re above neutral as a group on average, Whether they were cooking at home or whether they were fishing, they came out on average happy.

At inuittene på tross av en tradisjonell kultur på vikende front, høy arbeidsledighet og høy selvmordsrate, allikevel sier seg lykkelige, beviser kanskje Cacioppos tese om at de som er født depressive er i mindretall.

That the Inuit in spite of their receding traditional culture, high unemployment and high suicide rate, still claim to be happy might prove Cacioppos hypothesis that we who are born unhappy are in minority.

00.24.13

Fra de fjerneste himmelstrøk, fra de fattige i Calcutta til Masaiene i Kenya henter Robert Diener data

De skal han gi til faren sin, Ed Diener, professor i psykologi ved University of Illinois.

From faraway places, from the poor in Calcutta to the Masaii in Kenya, Robert Diener gathers data

He does it for his father Ed Diener, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.

So we gotta get more data really. We love data. We gotta get more data from exotic cultures, the jungles in Papua New Guinea, jungles of Amazon, pretty isolated right, not much Western influence. Where else? I don’t know about Mongolia. Some places in West Africa, Namibia, Angola.

00.24.58

Professor Diener, er en av USAs fremste eksperter på lykke, og en av de ledende innen positiv psykologi.

Han er en av kandidatene til å bli ny leder av den amerikanske psykologforeningen, American Psychological Association, APA

Professor Diener is one of the leading authorities on happiness research and positive psychology in the US. He tries to run for the position as head of the American Psychological Association. APA.

00.25.15

So did you get this licenseplate. This means a high subjective wellbeing. A 7 out of 7.

So what’s the most surprising thing you found in Greenland.

I think we keep going back to that, harsh climate, dark 6 months, light 6 months, and the people are still above neutral in happiness so it’s not external circumstances.

Formålet med datainnsamlingen blant de ulike folkeslagene er at Professor Diener har spurt seg: Finnes det en psykologisk profil som kjennetegner lykkelige mennesker, uansett hvor vi kommer fra?

One of the reasons Professor Diener has gathered data from the various peoples is the question: is there a psychological profile which characterizes happy people- regardless of their culture .

00.26.01

We found that extroverts are happier in every society we looked at and this was over 30 countries. So why would that be? Why would extroversion seem to be a universal predictor of happiness. And we think it’s because extroverts are more positive, maybe it’s an inherited genetic propensity to be positive, they like people more, they have more close friends, they’re more positive and they’re more self confident. It doesn’t mean that introverts can’t be happy. Introverts can be happy, but they just don’t experience the same level of positive emotions on average as the extroverts do.

00.26.05.23
Ed Diener
Professor of Psychologi
University of Illinois

00.26.40

Da har jeg litt å jobbe med,

Post-it: Vær utadvendt

Men hvis jeg ikke tror på at det går an å bli lykkelig, så er jeg redd for at jeg skal bli ennå mer innadvendt. En sånn passiv person som står aleine i hjørnet på fest.

jeg har jo ikke lyst til å kaste bort livet mitt heller

That gives me something to work on

Post-it: be an extrovert

But if I don’t believe that I can become happier, I’m afraid I’ll become even more introvert. The type of person who passively stands alone in the corner at a party.
I don’t want to throw my life away .

00.27.08.02
The World Database of Happiness
Rotterdam, Nederland

Ved World Database of Happiness i Nederland forsøker professor Veenhoven å regne ut hvilke betingelser et land trenger for at innbyggerne skal bli mest mulig lykkelige?

This is expressed from zero to one, and happy people are

For selv om inuittene er lykkelige mens de fisker og jakter, er de ikke så lykkelige som for eksempel vi i Skandinavia.

At the World Database of Happiness in the Netherlands professor Veenhoves tries to calculate which conditions a country needs for it’s population to be the happiest.

Because even if the Inuit are happy while they fish and hunt, they are not as happy as Americans.

00.27.38

I want to know what makes people happy and what makes a society a happy place. Well there’s a lot of speculation about that, but we need data. So what I do is try to get all the empirical studies on happiness and see what these studies tell about the conditions for happiness.

00.28.12

Som en av verdens fremste eksperter på lykke er Professor Veenhoven invitert til å gi råd til regjeringen i Bhutan. Bhutan er det siste lille buddhistiske kongedømmet i Himalaya.

As one of the leading authorities on happiness, Professor Veenhoven has been invited to advice the Bhutanese government. Bhutan is the last Buddhist kingdom in Himalaya.

The type of society in Bhutan which is, well, an agrarian society and to some extent a feudal society, that kind of society is generally not very happy.

I Bhutan har de bestemt seg for heller å måle brutto nasjonal lykke enn brutto nasjonal produkt, men de vet ikke helt hvordan de skal måle det enda.

The Bhutanese have decided to rather measure Gross National Happiness than Gross National Product, They just don’t know how to measure it yet.

I don’t know how happy the Bhutanese currently are because there isn’t any happiness research as yet. Gross National Happiness is the main political slogan, but there has never been any research on it.

00.29.06

00.29.07.24
CONFERENCE ON GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS
Timphu

Regjeringen i Bhutan har invitert forskere fra hele verden til en konferanse for å få vitenskapelige råd om hvordan de kan nærme seg det lykkelige samfunn.
de er nok et stykke unna ennå, i følge professoren, men han har et par tips på veien for å nå dit.

The Government of Bhutan has invited scientists from all over the world to a conference to gather scientific advicefor how to reach the happy society. They have quite a way to go, Professor Veenhoven admits, but he shares some findings.

I guess that the happiness of the Bhutanese is not very high. They are modernising at this moment and during that time it will not be very high either but in the long run, I think they’ll reap the fruits of modernisation.

00.29.49

Takke seg til industrisamfunnet. Hvor mange hadde ikke byttet bort tradisjonell kultur for innlagt vann.

Bless Industrial society
Who wouldn’t want to trade in traditional culture for running water.

På spørsmålet hvor mye vi liker livet vi lever som helhet svarer,
nesten alle i hele verden at de er lykkelige

When asked how much we like the life we live as a whole almost everybody in the world answer that they are happy

20 prosent er storfornøyd
20 percent are really pleased

46 prosent er blide
46 percent are happy

27 er passelig blide
27 are content

4 prosent er nøytrale
4 percent are neutral

det er så få dønn ulykkelige mennesker i verden at det ikke en gang er statistisk målbart

There are so few fundamentally unhappy people in the world that they don’t show up in the figures

men så har de ikke spurt noen i afrika og ingen i midtøsten heller.

But they asked few in Africa, and nobody in the Middle East

00.31.02

Hvis de hadde spurt meg om jeg hvor godt jeg liker livet jeg lever som helhet,
så hadde jeg svart at jeg har ikke noe å klage over, jeg vil jo ikke virke utakknemlig heller.

If they asked me how much I like my life as a whole, I would answer that I have no complaints. I don’t want to seem ungrateful.

It says; how happy are you feeling right now and it gives you the one to seven scale.

Men da måler jo forskerne at jeg er generelt tilfreds, og ikke om jeg føler meg lykkelig eller ei.

But then the scientists measures that I think I am content and not if I feel happy or not.

Personlig kan jeg ikke fri meg fra tanken at forskerne må ha litt målingsproblemer.

Personally I can’t escape the thought that they must have some measurement problems.

00.31.29
There are many ways to measure happiness, the most common being to ask people;
Are you happy, are you satisfied with your life. People generally know whether or not they’re happy. However there are problems with it and people tend to... there are reasons they might not know whether or not they’re happy. They might sort of change their answer after what they thought I wanted to hear. So we have to use other ways besides just asking people are you happy.

00.31.50.12
Robert Biswas-Diener
Independent Researcher

00.32.03

Nonner er takknemlige målingsobjekter fordi klosterlivet gir dem identiske levekår..
Nuns make good study objects since convent life provide identical life circumstances.

Ved et kloster i Milwaukee, USA, fikk nonnene målt lykkenivåene sine fra 1932. Da forskerne sammeliknet nonnenes humør med deres livslengde fant de et overraskende resultat.

At a convent in Milwaukee, US, the nuns got their happiness levels equated since 1932. When they compared the nuns’ moods with their life lengths, the scientists got a surprising result

De smilende nonnene levde over 10 år lengre enn de sure nonnene
The smiling nuns outlived, by more than ten years, the grumpy nuns

00.32.36.14
Papua New Guinea

Psykologen Paul Ekman bekreftet Charles Darwins tese om at følelser utrykkes likt over hele verden. På Papua Ny Guinea undersøkte han hvordan musklene i ansiktet viser følelser. Det er små forskjeller mellom falske og ekte smil, det er vanskelig å se forskjellen uten dyp konsentrasjon.

Psychologist Paul Ekman confirmed Darwins’ hypothesis that feelings are expressed in the same way around the world. At Papua New Guinea he looked into how the facial muscles express emotion. There are subtle differences between fake and real smiles, It is diffucult to spot the difference without deep concentration.

De ekte smilene ser slik ut.
A real smile looks like this

Duchenne-smil
Duchenne smile

Smilerynker
Smile wrinkles

Bredt smil
Wide smile?

Vi bruker øyemuskulaturen slik at vi får kråketær
The eyemuscles give us crows feet .

Det er de som klarer å lage sånne smil som lever lenge.
The ones among us who smile like this, they live longer.

00.33.28

Ved University of Chicago videreføres Professor Ekmans studier. Som sosialnevrolog forsøker John Cacioppo å bruke viten om hjernen for bedre å forstå mellommenneskelige forhold.

At the University of Chicago John Cacioppo continues professor Ekman’s studies. As a social neurologist he uses his knowledge of the brain to understand human social relations better.

Professor Cacioppos målemetode unngår Robert Dieners måleproblem.
Professor Cacioppos measuring method avoids Robert Diener’s problem.

00.33.48.12
John Cacioppo
Professor of Social Neurologi
University of Chicago

We were interested in emotion and in particular what we call evaluative processes - the jugdements of what is appetitive , what is adversive, what’s good, what’s bad

(Okay john, If you could just hold on to the front of this please, with your hands)

Ved Cacioppos laboratorium måler de lekkasjene i ansiktsmuskulaturen, slik håper de å finne ut om vi bedømmer inntrykk som gode eller dårlige.

At Cacioppo’s laboratory they measure leaks in the facial muscles in order to find out whether we judge an impression as good or bad.

00.34.18

Formålet med forskningen er å finne ut om vi har en medfødt tilbøyelighet til å legge mest merke til positive eller negative hendelser.
The obective of the research is to discover whether we have an innate tendency to notice primarily positive or negative ocurrences.

That involves putting very small electrodes in pairs over muscles, allright. Those muscles show very low levels, millions of a volt level of activity long before there’s a strong enough emotion or a strong enough muscle action to produce any smile or frown and so we can study those emotions on very weak levels.

00.35.29

forsøket viser at vi reagerer raskere og sterkere på negative bilder og
husker dem bedre etterpå.
The experiment shows that we react stronger and faster to negative images and remember them better..

Negative pictures gain more attention than positive pictures. We see that as an electrocordical potential in the visual cortex. So that’s a negativity bias

00.36.00

Cacippos konklusjon er at vi har en nedarvet genetisk tilbøyelighet til å legge mer merke til negative inntrykk enn positive

Cacioppo’s conclusion is that we have a hereditary genetic bias to pay more attention to negative rather than positive impressions.

For at gjennomsnittsmenneske skal oppnå varig lykke har Cacioppo derfor regnet ut at for hver negativ handling bør vi gjøre fem positive

In order for the average person to achieve lasting happiness Cacioppo has calculated that for each negative act we need to do at least five positive.

For å bli lykkelig i for eksempel et ekteskap må vi komme med fem komplimenter for hver sure bemerkning. Det er jo ganske mye å kreve av et menneske.

To achieve happiness in a say a marriage we would need to pay five compliments for each negative remark.

-That’s quite a lot to ask of a human being.

Post it: fem komplimenter for hver sure bemerkning
Post it: five compliments for each negative remark

00.36.55

Men selv om hele femti prosent av lykkenivået er styrt av genene – så er det jo ikke det alt.

Even though fifty percent of the happiness level is determined by our genes – that is not by any means all

00.37.06.03
Sonja Lyubomirsky
Professor i psykologi
UCLA Riverside

What are the other determinants of happiness, well the second major thing is the life cricumstances that a person experiences, is born into.

forskerne verden over har stilt seg spørsmål om hva slags levekår man bør skaffe seg for å bli lykkeligst mulig.

Scientists have asked themselves what type of life circumstances make the happiest people.

Life circumstances

hva slags kjæreste som er best, hvor mye en bør tjene, og hva slags utdannelse en bør skaffe seg.

What kind of boyfriend is best, how much should you earn and what type of education should you go for,

00.37.30

Rådgiveren min på gymnaset ga meg følgende karriereråd:
å finne noe jeg ville trives med.

My high school career councellor adviced me:

Ennå har ikke forskerne blitt enige om hvilket yrke vi skulle valgt for å bli lykkeligst mulig

Scientists still haven’t agreed to which profession we’d better choose to achieve maximum happiness.

Foreløpig har de bare slått fast at jurister er de minst lykkelige av alle

For now they have merely established that attorneys are the least happy of all.

Post-it: Ikke bli jurist.
Post-it: Don’t become a lawyer

Det skal jeg nok klare å holde meg unna
That should not pose a problem.

Men det forskerne kan si ganske sikkert er at lønnsnivået påvirker lykkenivået
Vårt, men vi trenger ikke mer enn 100 000 kroner i året for å bli lykkelig i gjennomsnitt i verden.

However the scientists have established that our income level does affect our happiness level, but 100.000 kroner (($15 000) pr year is sufficient to be happy, as a world average.

Det er jo overkommelig.
That is not to tricky to achieve...

00.38.10

Og om vi skulle tjene mer penger enn det intet som tyder på at masse penger gjør oss ulykkelig.

And if we were to make more than that, nothing indicates that a lot of money makes us unhappy.

Levekåret som betyr mest for lykkenivået er valget av kjæreste

The most important life circumstance is our choice of partner

det spiller ingen rolle om vedkommende skal ha blondt hår, eller grått hår eller brunt hår, eller kanskje til og med er en dame.
stygge eller pene, utseende påvirker ikke lykkenivået.

Whether this person has blond hair, grey hair of brown hair – or even is a woman.
Ugly or beautiful -looks does not make a difference.

intelligens spiller heller ingen rolle.

Intelligence doesn’t matter either.

00.38.56

Tony Blairs rådgivere har invitert en av englands fremste eksperter på lykke til Downing Street 10. Professor i økonomi Andrew Oswald ved University of Warwick har forsøkt å regne ut pengeverdien av positive emosjoner. Økonom Oswald har beregnet verdien av ekteskapelig lykke til å tilsvare en lønnsøkning på 798 875 kr (Euro)

Tony Blairs advisors have invited one of the UK’s foremost experts on happiness to 10 Downing Street. Economy professor Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick attempts to calculate the monetary value of positive emotions. Economist Oswald has concluded that the value of marital bliss equals a raise of 798 875 kroner

å skille seg tilsvarer å miste like mye lykke som om jeg skulle ha gått å ned 1 506 450 kroner i lønn,- det første året.

Getting divorced causes you to decrease your happiness equal to having your salary reduced 1 506 450 kroner in - the first year.

00.39.40

det spiller ingen rolle om jeg får barn eller ei
Gleder og sorger utlikner hverandre og påvirker derfor ikke lykkenivået.

Having children will not affect my happiness level. Joys and griefs balance each other out.

Hva slags lykkenivå er det rimelig å forvente seg?

But what happiness level is it reasonable for me to aim for?

Professor Veenhoven har forsøkt å regne ut hvor lykkelige vi kan forvente oss å bli i ulike deler av verden

Professor Veenhoven attempts to calculate how happy we can expect to be in different parts of the world.

00.40.04

The darker the green and higher the average and the more you move to the west the darker the colours become and the happier people are. As you see, currently Switzerland on top, and then Iceland. I wouldn’t recommend to live in Russia now because life is miserable.

Post it: unngå øst-europa
Post it: avoid Eastern Europe

00.40.35

med riktig kjæreste, riktig lønnsnivå, rette hjemland og ikke minst riktig antall barn, burde alt ligge til rette for en høy score på lykkeskalaen

det hele virker i grunnen ganske overkommelig.

With the right boyfriend, proper salary, born in the right country and the right amount of childen-That’s a good start for a high happiness score,

It all seems quite manageable.

00.41.09

Set point 50%
Life circumstances 10%

An interesting finding from the psychological literature is that life circumstances only explains about 10 prosent of the the variants of peoples happiness, so the correlations between peoples happiness levels and different life circumstances is very small.

00.41.17

Jeg bruker 90 prosent av tida mi og så har det knapt noen effekt. Uttallige timer på skolebenken, unevnelige antall dater – så har det nesten ikke betydd noenting

90 prosent av tida mi har gått med til noe som ikke gir mer enn 10 prosent lykke.

Jeg har rett og slett ikke hatt snøring på hva som ville gjøre meg glad i det lange løp

Here I spend 90% of my time and it hardly has any effect at all. Innumerable hours at school, an unmentionable amount of dates – all that to almost no effect.

I’ve spent 90% of my time doing things that only amounts to 10% of my total happiness level.

I’vejust had no clue as to what would make me happy in the long run,

00.41.44

Why is that the case that life circumstance don’t effect peoples happiness levels .
I think the biggest reason is something called adaptation, which is that fact that we adapt, we habituate, we become used to things that we have.

So adaptation is one of the the biggest questions in happiness research because people adapt to bad things and people adapt to good things. Something that should make you happy like you’re getting married you get very happy for the time and then you drop back to where you were before so over and over that adaptiation influences peoples happiness

00.42.03.02
Ed Diener
Professor of Psychology
University of Illinois

00.42.22

toppgevinsten i lotto gleder bare ett år
forfremmelse på jobben - gleden er over etter tre måneder
gleden av et ekteskap varer i fem år.

A major lottery win one year of joy, only
A promotion – no effect after three months
The joy of being married lasts five years

alle forsøk ender opp i nærheten av utgangspunktet jeg arvet av forfedrene mine.

All attempts end up somewhere round the starting point I inherited from my ancestors.

00.42.47

men hvis det ikke er levekår hva er det da?
For oss som ikke har et medfødt topp lykkenivå er det ingen grunn til å ta en pust i bakken:

But if life circumstances are not more important – what is? For us without the highest set point there is no time to rest.

For å sette seg ned og tenke nøye gjennom hvor dårlige gener jeg har, det forsterker visstnok bare problemene.

Ttaking the time to analyse my bad disposition is not a good idea. That just makes things worse.

A lot of people who are a little bit unhappy they want try to figure out why, what is my problem, why I am unhappy and they think that , if they think about, that they reflect about themselves in introspect and kind of chew your thoughts, that they would... that they will come up with some kind of answear, that they’ll gain self insight.

00.43.21

Sigmund Freuds psykoanalyse anbefales altså ikke.
The psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud is not recommended.

If you’re feeling kind of down in the dumps and you try to figure out why, it just makes you feel worse, it just kind of amplifies you mood. It’s as if your mood is negative, it’s gonna amplify your negative mood, It’s kind of passive negative rumination that is not good for you.

det er bare å gå på med krum hals.
No choice, but to grit my teeth.

00.43.54
Rent vitenskapelig hadde bestemor rett da hun gjentok at
det ikke er hvordan man har det, men hvordan man tar det, som betyr noe

Scientifically speaking my grandmother was correct when she kept repeating:
It is not how you are but how you take it that matters (?)

Men hvordan skal man egentlig ”ta det”, rent vitenskapelig sett.
But how should one really” take it” – in the name of science?

00.44.06

About 50 % of the differences in peoples happiness levels are genetically determined and about 10% are influenced by their life cirumstances. Well, that leaves 40 % of the differences in happiness unaccounted for. And I think most of that 40% has to do with what we do in our daily lives, sort of intentional activities or behaviour and strategies that we can do everyday to make ourselves happier.

Set point 50%
Life circumstances 10%
Intentional activities 40%

00.44.45

Den største utfordringen innenfor positiv psykologi er å finne ut hvilke bevisste handlinger som er mest effektive for å bli lykkeligst mulig? Forskerne har bare delvis funnet svaret, men de jobber med saken.

The greatest challenge within positive psychology is to indentify which intentional activities makes us most happy? Scientists have partly found the answer, but they are still working on it.

00.45.05

Hi, are you Linda?
Yes I am.
I’m Robert Biswas-Diener. We spoke the other day on the phone about psychology experiments. Can I come in.

de har funnet et handlingsmønster som kanskje kan lindre den bitre følelsen av at jeg har kastet bort så mye tid på noe som bare ga 10 prosent lykke.

They have identified one intentional activity which eases some of my bitterness for having wasted so much time on something that gave me only 10% happiness,

Lykkelige mennesker visker ut ubehageligheter fra hukommelsen. De tilrettelegger fortida for å passe nåtidas ego.

Happy people erase unpleasant memories and adjust their past to fit with their present ego.

00.45.33

Memory is not a picture of what happened, over and over studies show that people reconstruct their memory according to their current values, and so people who are happy certainly are going to reconstruct events in the past to fit into a positive framework.

Det er aldri for seint å ha en lykkelig barndom
It is never to late to have had a happy childhood.

Post-it: tilpass fortida til nåtida
Post-it: adjust the past to the present.

00.46.13

Professor Lyubomirsky fortsetter Professor Dieners arbeid med å finne forskjellen i lykkelige og ulykkeliges handlingsmønstre,

Professor Lyubomirsky continues Professor Dieners work to find the differences between a happy and an unhappy person’s intentional activities.

The fun part, now we can sit in here and eat our desserts so after you’ve eaten the cake you rate the cake that you ate and then we’re just gonna talk about the cakes that you didn’t get and how you feel about them.

Hun rekrutterte både folk som så seg selv som lykkelige og noen som var ulykkelige, og lot dem velge mellom desserter.
She recruited both people who regarded themselves as happy and some who were unhappy and let them choose between a selection of desserts.

00.46.43

We were interested in how happy and unhappy people made decisions and they respond to those decisions.

Men de fikk ikke det de hadde aller mest lyst på.
But they didn’t get the dessert they wanted the most.

How are the cakes?
Pretty good. good
Mine was really good and I didn’t want this one at all.
Good.

00.47.06

De lykkelige var fornøyd med alle valgmulighetene. Både dessertene de fikk og dessertene de ikke fikk.

The happy test subects were pleased with all the options, Both the desserts they got and the ones thet didn’t get

The dessert I got was the one I wanted least out of all, and I’m like well thinking to myself: You still get a free dessert. You know.

De ulykkelige oppførte seg helt annerledes. De sa seg fornøyde med desserten de fikk, men rakka ned på de dessertene de ikke fikk.

The unhappy behaved differently. They were also happy with the dessert they got, but dissed the ones they didn’t receive.

Allright, So are you changing that thing that you received, so you are feeling better about what you received, as well,

I feel better about what I received, and also thinking more negatively about what I didn’t receive, or pointing out the more negative aspects of what I didn’t receive. Just to feel better.

Did someone else do that, consciously?
Perhaps we can learn to teach ourselves to react the way a happy person might. All in an effort to boost happiness.
Yeah

Post-it: Nest best er bra nok.
Post-it: second best is good enough.

00.48.11

Lyubomirskys eksperimenter er inspirert av Psykolog Michael Fordyce. For at lykkenivåene skal høynes, så høyt at det kanskje kan bryte rekorden på 7,2 fra femtitallet, summerer professor Fordyce’s assistent de beste handlingsmønstrene forskerne er kommet fram til så langt.

Lyubomirskys experiments are inpired by psychologist Michael Fordyce. To raise the happiness level and maybe even break the record of 7,2 from the fifties, Professor Fordyces assistant sums up the most effective intentional activities the scientists have found so far.

Be more active and keep busy
Spend more time socialising
Lower your expectations and aspirations
Be productive at meaningful work
Get better organised and plan things out
Stop worrying
Develop positive optimistic thinking
Get present oriented
Work on a healthy personality
Develop an outgoing social personality
Close relationships are number one
Eliminate negative feelings and problems
And be yourself.

00.49.16

Det er nesten litt banalt, er det ikke. Be yourself. Hvordan i all verden skal jeg klare å gjennomføre alle disse rådene.

Isn’t this almost a touch banal. Be yourself. How on earth will I be able to implement all this advice?

Men nå er jeg jo negativ igjen – jeg skulle jo skjerpe meg.

But now I’m negative – and here I was supposed to get my act together.

Det er bare en ting jeg må undersøke først

There is just this one thing I need to check first.

Moren min ville jo bare at jeg skulle bli et lykkelig menneske
Men er det bare positivt å være positiv.

00.49.54

Professor Norbert Schwarz har funnet ut at lykkelige mennesker har en svakhet når de står foran viktige oppgaver. Det gode humøret gjør at de er mindre på vakt for hva som kan gå galt.

Professor Norbert Scwarz has discovered that happy people share a weakness when faced with important tasks. Their good mood makes them less aware of potential problems.

10.48.05.07
Norbert Schwarz
Professor of psychology
University of Wisconsin

Our moods influence how we think, not only if we find something good or bad, but how systematically we think about it. People in a good mood are more likely to stereotype than people in a bad mood. They become more gullible if they feel good and more careful and analytical if they feel bad.

00.50.24

Det gode humøret gjør at de er mindre oppmerksomme på hva som kan gå galt. Isteden er de vanetenkere som er lite interessert i nye løsninger.

The good mood makes them less aware of what can go wrong. Instead they think in grooves and have little interest in new solutions.

Standby

00.50.41

Det er klart at å forsøke å bli lykkelig det har sin pris. Men det ordner seg jo sikkert. Det gjør det jo 9 av 10 ganger

Attempting to be happy comes with a pricetag. But things will work themselves out, I’m sure. 9 times out of 10 it does.

00.50.55

So when you’re involved in a really major decision, like should we send up the, what is it, this space shuttle Challenger, right. Shall we send it up. You wanna maybe get a bunch of people who are a little bit cynical and who are really thoughtful so you don’t make a big mistake. There are times that even being in a negative mood might be useful.

Two one and liftoff, liftoff, of the 25th space shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower.

00.51.54

Det er ikke like lett å drømme om å reise til månen lenger. Men hvis jeg velger å følge forskningsresultatene så kan jeg jo bare late som ulykken ikke skjedde

Dreaming of travelling to the moon is not that simple anymore. But if I follow the scientitic advice I can pretend the accident never happened.

00.52.19

Lykkelige mennesker visker ubehageligheter fra hukommelsen Som lykkelig er det aldri for seint å ha en problemfri fortid.

Det er nå eller aldri. Jeg kan fremdeles sikte mot månen.

End

Happy people erase unpleasantries from their memory. As a happy person it’s never to late to have a problemfree past.

It is now or never. I can still aim for the moon.