59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (33 page)

Develop the Gratitude Attitude.

Having people list three things that they are grateful for in life or three events that have gone especially well over the past week can significantly increase their level of happiness for about a month. This, in turn, can cause them to be more optimistic about the future and can improve their physical health.

Be a Giver.

People become much happier after even the smallest acts of kindness. Those who give a few dollars to the needy, buy a small surprise gift for a loved one, donate blood, or help a friend are inclined to experience a fast-acting and significant boost in happiness.

Hang a Mirror in Your Kitchen.

Placing a mirror in front of people when they are presented with different food options results in a remarkable 32 percent reduction in their consumption of unhealthy food. Seeing their own reflection makes them more aware of their body and more likely to eat food that is good for them.

Buy a Potted Plant for the Office.

Adding plants to an office results in a 15 percent boost in the number of creative ideas reported by male employees and helps their female counterparts to produce more original solutions to problems. The plants help reduce stress and induce good moods, which, in turn, promote creativity.

Touch People Lightly on The Upper Arm.

Lightly touching someone on their upper arm makes them far more likely to agree to a request because the touch is unconsciously perceived as a sign of high status. In one dating study, the touch produced a 20 percent increase in the number of people who accepted an invitation to dance in a nightclub and a 10 percent increase in those who would give their telephone number to a stranger on the street.

Write About Your Relationship.

Partners who spend a few moments each week committing their deepest thoughts and feelings about their relationship to paper boost the chances that they will stick together by more than 20 percent. Such “expressive writing” results in partners’ using more positive language when they speak to each other, leading to a healthier and happier relationship.

Deal with Potential Liars by Closing Your Eyes and Asking for an E-mail.

The most reliable cues to lying are in the words that people use, with liars tending to lack detail, use more “ums” and “ahs,” and avoid self-references (“me,” “mine,” “I”). In addition, people are about 20 percent less likely to lie in an e-mail than in a telephone call, because their words are on record and so are more likely to come back and haunt them.

Praise Children’s Effort over Their Ability.

Praising a child’s effort rather than their ability (“Well done. You must have tried very hard”) encourages them to try regardless of the consequences, therefore sidestepping fear of failure. This, in turn, makes them especially likely to attempt challenging problems, find these problems enjoyable, and try to solve them on their own time.

Visualize Yourself Doing, Not Achieving.

People who visualize themselves taking the practical steps needed to achieve their goals are far more likely to succeed than those who simply fantasize about their dreams becoming
a reality. One especially effective technique involves adopting a third-person perspective: those who visualize themselves as others see them are about 20 percent more successful than those who adopt a first-person point of view.

Consider Your Legacy.

Asking people to spend just a minute imagining a close friend standing up at their funeral and reflecting on their personal and professional legacy helps them to identify their long-term goals and assess the degree to which they are progressing toward making those goals a reality.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the help and support of many people. First, thanks for the wonderful advice and guidance provided by my agent, Patrick Walsh, and editors Richard Milner, Jon Butler, and Edward Kastenmeier. Thanks also to Clive Jeffries and Emma Greening for providing such insightful feedback at every stage, to Portia Smith for playing a key role in everything, to Jim Underdown and Spencer Marks for measuring the hands of so many famous people, to Roger Highfield for helping to explore the psychology of surnames, to Rachel Armstrong for her insightful comments on romance, to Sam Murphy for her help in discovering the relationship between attraction and sport. Also, special thanks to Pat Hendry and Kirsten Skow, friends to the simple folk. Finally, as ever, special thanks also to the wonderful Caroline Watt for giving far beyond the call of duty. Thank you.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

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Fast Company
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2.
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HAPPINESS

1.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?
Psychological Bulletin, 131
, 803–855.

2.
See, for example, Myers, D. G. (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people.
American Psychologist, 55, 56–67
.

3.
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36
, 917–927.

4.
Cited in Myers, D. G. (2000). The work relating to the relationship between GNP and happiness involved examining data from the World Bank and the “happiness” and “life satisfaction” scales of the 1990–1991 World Values Survey.

5.
Diener, E., Horwitz, J., & Emmons, R. A. (1985). Happiness of the very wealthy.
Social Indicators Research, 16
, 263–274.

6.
Myers, D. G. (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people.
American Psychologist, 55
, 56–67.

7.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change.
Review of General Psychology, 9
, 111–131. Figuring out the genetic component of happiness has involved asking identical and nonidentical twins to rate how happy they are. Identical twins have the same genetic makeup, while fraternal twins do not, and so it is possible to calculate the genetic basis for happiness by carefully comparing the results from the two groups.

8.
Borton, J. L. S., & Casey, E. C. (2006). Suppression of negative self-referential thoughts: A field study.
Self and Identity, 5
, 230–246.

9.
For an overview of this work, see Wegner, D. M. (1989).
White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control
. New York: Viking. The chocolate study is described in Erskine, J. A. K. (2007). Resistance can be futile: Investigating behavioural rebound.
Appetite, 50
, 415–421. I made up the finding about George W. Bush.

10.
Zech, E. (1999). Is it really helpful to verbalise one’s emotions?
Gedraf en Gezondheid, 27
, 42–47.

11.
Zech, E., & Rimé, B. (2005). Is talking about an emotional experience helpful? Effects on emotional recovery and perceived benefits.
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, 270–287.

12.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Tkach, C. (2003). The consequences of dysphoric rumination. In Papageorgiou, C. & Wells, A. (Eds.).
Rumination: Nature, theory, and treatment of negative thinking in depression
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13.
For a review of this work, see Lepore, S. J., & Smyth, J. M. (Eds.) (2002).
The writing cure: How expressive writing promotes health and emotional well-being
. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

14.
Spera, S., Buhrfeind, E., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1994). Expressive writing and coping with job loss.
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, 722–733.

15.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84
, 377–389.

16.
King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27
, 798–807.

17.
Burton, C. M., & King, L. A. (2004). The health benefits of writing about intensely positive experiences.
Journal of Research in Personality, 38
, 150–163.

18.
Floyd, K., Mikkelson, A. C., Hesse, C., & Pauley, P. M. (2007). Affectionate writing reduces total cholesterol: Two randomized, controlled trials.
Human Communication Research, 33
, 119–142.

19.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions.
American Psychologist, 60
, 410–421.

20.
Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T (2003). To do or to have: That is the question.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85
, 1193–1202.

21.
This questionnaire is based on work described in Richins, M. L., & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation.
Journal of Consumer Research, 19
(3), 303–316.

22.
Richins, M. L., & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation.
Journal of Consumer Research, 19
(3), 303–316.

23.
Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness.
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, 1687–1688.

24.
Harbaugh, B. T., Mayr, U., & Burghart, D. (2007). Neural responses to taxation and voluntary giving reveal motives for charitable donations.
Science, 316
(5831), 1622—1625.

25.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change.
Review of General Psychology, 9
, 111–131.

26.
Chaplin, L. N., & John, D. R. (2007). Growing up in a material world: Age differences in materialism in children and adolescents.
Journal of Consumer Research, 34
(4), 480–493.

27.
For a review of this work, see Laird, J. D. (2007).
Feelings: The perception of self
. New York: Oxford University Press.

28.
Förster, J. (2004). How body feedback influences consumers’ evaluation of products.
Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14
, 415–425.

29.
Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54
, 768–777.