The Science of Happiness, Motivation, and Meaning | Dan Ariely | Big Think

The Science of Happiness, Motivation, and Meaning
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Motivation is a mysterious mechanism. It exists within all of us, but lays dormant unless unlocked. The 'how' is the difficult part, something business and individuals struggle with to varying degrees. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely has found that there’s a dissonance between what we think motivates people and what actually does. The most simple formula for motivation, and the one we reach for the most often, is that money = motivation. Luxury rewards are a powerful idea, but are they really what drive us?
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DAN ARIELY:
Dan Ariely is the James B Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight and co-founder of BEworks, which helps business leaders apply scientific thinking to their marketing and operational challenges. His books include Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, both of which became New York Times best-sellers. as well as The Honest Truth about Dishonesty and his latest, Irrationally Yours.
Ariely publishes widely in the leading scholarly journals in economics, psychology, and business. His work has been featured in a variety of media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Business 2.0, Scientific American, Science and CNN.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Dan Ariely: So when we think about what motivates people maybe the first thing we think about is what we think motivates people and what don’t we understand motivates people. And maybe the first misunderstanding is about the pleasure principle. So we have this idea of we have the right to pursue happiness and we’re trying to be happy and that’s really what we’re pursuing - happiness. But think about it. What gives you happiness in a way that is observable? Maybe sitting on the beach drinking a mojito or maybe sitting on the sofa watching a sitcom. But if you do almost anything that is useful, meaningful, that you take pride of it’s not the same things. But imagine you have a whole life of sitting on the beach drinking mojitos. How happy would that life be? So the first I think mistake is that we pursue momentary happiness rather than longer term happiness. So we do the things that will make us laugh out loud today kind of. Not always laugh out loud but kind of like that. And we don’t do the things that are difficult and complex and challenging but give us a very different sense of happiness. Think about something like running a marathon. You don’t see anybody happy. Like if you came as an alien and you image peoples’ brains and you looked at their facial expressions as they’re running a marathon you would say somebody’s punishing them.
Like they are paying for something terrible they’ve done and this is how they’re paying their debt to society. But it is kind of miserable but it’s also meaningful and create a sense of achievement in someone. So we’re pursuing momentary pleasure rather than truly understanding the depth of what happiness is or what meaning is. And then the second thing is that we’re trying to figure out how we externally motivate people and we have usually a very simple equation that says motivation equals money. And if you’re not working hard enough or doing something and they’re just not paying you enough or not giving you a bonus in the right way then we just jigger around bonuses and payment and we say oh, let’s change the payment this way and change the payment this way and give is slightly big bonuses here and slightly big bonuses there and we’ll create point systems for evaluation and all kind of things. The beauty of human nature is that lots of things motivate us. A sense of accomplishment and achievement, our title, our connection to work, our connection to people at work, competing with other people. All of those things motivate us. So we write a motivation equation we would write motivation equals yes, money is important but so is achievement, sense of progress, competition, dah, dah, dah, dah.
And the question is how do we use all of them to create motivation. And in physics people look for the perpetual motion machine. How do we get energy from nothing, right, and continue growing. In motivation there is something like that so imagine two businesses. In one of them the business doesn’t care about motivation. In one of them they care deeply. In the first business people are miserable and the business is mis...
For the full transcript, check out bigthink.com/videos/dan-ariel...

[@bigthink]

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[@scotiaguy]

Bosses also knowingly sometimes seek to demoralize their employees, especially if they are weak, insecure or incompetent. This can be the case also when employee output is quantified and/ or qualified, with bonuses and pecuniary rewards, etc.

[@Devine3190]

I think the bigger mistake is sublimimating your whole life in work for an imagined sense of happiness later in life. There should be a balance of immediate pleasure and long term pleasure.

[@bryanhatebreeder]

The only way I could think of to achieve that balance is doing what you love to do and having a passionate and purposeful work. Otherwise, short term pleasure is just a senseless distraction and an illusory palliative to the meaninglessness of the situation of being miserably working to achieve happiness in a distant future.

[@ashwarysharma246]

Amen, insightful KZbinr

[@sunny5637]

Laboratory

[@simongloutnez589]

Dats why its important to have passions ! For me its riding (mainly alpine skiing and inline skating during summer) no matter how methodical I am while performing those activities, I'm having so much fun. I can be focusing solely on long term exercices and still reeping all those short term benefits 😊 god I love skiing (and blading)

[@civilsavant6072]

I love this guy. Please get him back in front of the camera for more videos!

[@TurnOntheBrightLights.]

Has he been in a previous BigThink video?

[@StoicaNicusor]

yup

[@StoicaNicusor]

bigthink.com/experts/danariely

[@TurnOntheBrightLights.]

Stoica Nicusor Thanks for the link!

[@rahulswami9256]

RocketPawnch Meaning? What is he talking about what kind of meaning i can't understand

[@Vgpl0]

"The problem is that we pursue momentary happiness rather than longer term happiness." I love how much these researches on the cusp of a new scientific paradigm reek of ancient greek platonic philosophy. People pursuing base pleasures (eating, etc) is fleeting "happiness" etc etc while longer term (knowledge, etc) are what should be sought.

[@squamish4244]

The ancient Greek concept of eudamonia, or 'flourishing'. We are actually on the cusp of a new paradigm. But this guy is still kind of stuck in the old one, because all of the stuff he mentions ultimately proves impermanent too, just somewhat less so than the other stuff.

[@Vgpl0]

I'm not entirely sure we are, because society (at least American society) is if anything *more* materialistic and appetitive. Everything sprawled on commercials is either sexual objects, food, or driveling entertainment without purpose.

[@squamish4244]

Vgpl0 Well, I did say "on the cusp". It has not diffused through society yet, only into a subculture - such as the people here. But that's how it all starts. The scientists that study happiness and its root causes have really shifted their understanding in the last decade or so because of the unprecedented ability to study the brain closely and the mound of studies that have been done on advanced meditators and others who report high self-rated experiences of happiness independent of materialistic pleasures.

[@NirmalThani]

Except the greeks didn't have a way of quantify it so many people could practice the philosophy. Now the society can attempt to do it with verifiable results through the scientific method.

[@guido3721]

Just the other day I was thinking about the difference between pleasure and satisfaction. Training is not something pleasurable, at all. But at the same time is one of the most satisfactory things I do on any given day. And the same could be said about many other things. Pleasure is important, and it has a place in life. But satisfaction is such a powerful feeling...

[@elblondie69falconer65]

This is what I live for. Please make more stuff like this Big Think. It made me momentarily happy

[@balisongkid1]

Happiness is a novelty. There is no such thing as long term happy. You can work towards something that will make you proud, like an accomplishment, but that is different from happy. You will be happy when you buy a new car, but that happiness fades over time. You need to keep doing new things and getting new things to continue happiness. People want to be happy without realizing what happiness actually is. They think that they can do something that will leave them happy and life will be good from then on. This is not how it works.

[@GunnedDownAtrocity]

I think you are describing pleasure, rather than happiness. Before making a big decision, I like to ask myself, "will this bring me pleasure, or will this bring me happiness?" That may or may not make the distinction clear. If not, perhaps "fulfillment" would be better word choice over "happiness."

[@dbsk06]

amen

[@mrknarf4438]

@@GunnedDownAtrocity fulfillment >> happiness

[@kirkh5820]

This is what this channel should be. Keep it up.

[@kennethmccormick1791]

Big Think If you're any smart, you'll stop with the political pundits, actors & what not & keep bringing people like Dan to talk. This is what I subscribed for...

[@JLchevz]

I enjoy some political talkers as long as theyre not biased

[@rnd9331]

Ok Kenny

[@SnakeSalmon8izback]

"my definition of smart means not tolerating viewpoints that don't already agree with my worldview!!"

[@coppersense999]

@@SnakeSalmon8izback first step is admitting the problem. Good work!

[@DW-vl2wi]

Less work, more family time. Happiness relies on simplicity: No matter how much you make, or what you do. Making it simple will take the stress off and allow happiness in. No one likes worrying and being frustrated. Take all of your problems and spread them out, then take care of what you can while planning on how to solve it all. Sometimes you won't be able to, no problem, just make it simpler.

[@lowqualityshitposts8860]

its not the conclusion,but the journey that matters

[@JamesKirby33]

An example of momentary happiness that needs to be avoided is when you're relaxing at home, but being distracted from the work you need to do. Yes you have the momentary pleasure, but then the happiness will eventually go away, and you would have had a greater sense of happiness if you had accomplished the work you could have done.

[@soglf7889]

one of the best videos on youtube

[@caionovaes6562]

Só pra dizer... que canal excelente! Dos poucos vídeos que assisti, só vi conteúdo de alta qualidade. Parabéns!!!

[@leonmauricio9093]

Motivation coming from understanding human nature, wisdom from experience of analyzing life. Brilliant, and thanks again.

[@kates7424]

He is so engaging! I stopped everything to sit up and watch this video. Fantastic, can't wait to see more from him👍

[@unlabuntenga]

Another positive motivational video I fully agree with, but will end up applying and implementing 0% in day to day life.

[@jonskunator]

Maybe these motivational videos will still plant some seeds of thought that will slowly steer person's behavior in a longer timespan.

[@danthadon87]

Tim Ferriss's new years resolution big think video is the fastest and simplest to apply.

[@JLchevz]

then do it

[@TurdFurgeson571]

Unsolicited advice inbound: Start small. Like super small. If you wake up at sporadic times, start waking up at the same time for two days in a row, then three then a week straight etc. Once that becomes easy, then wake up a bit earlier, 5 minutes, 10 etc. (be reasonable -- a 2 am wakeup is not an accomplishment, it's a detriment). Do this, if for no other reason, to establish that you *can* motivate yourself to do something. Then take it from there and look for ways to apply your ability to motivate yourself to do other desirable things.

[@DW-vl2wi]

TurdFurgeson571 I do this with jacking off.

[@chaugulepankaj]

We value momentary happiness over long term satisfaction. Beauty of human nature is that lot of things motivate us.

[@pixpan9012]

we need more videos like this. I enjoyed this a lot.

[@philipfry2396]

I love the marathon/aliens example :)

[@vopall]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Thanks to everyone involved :)

[@anikyt7570]

This is very important video to me ... thank you very much Dan Ariely

[@FullMetalCaptain]

Now I really want to play with Bionicles...

[@123321abz]

Very insightful and great delivery from the guy.

[@thechrislewisssss]

I'm motivated now

[@thechrislewisssss]

Payhole Everdouche why?!?! Lol

[@KutadguB]

I love big think, hope somewhere near future they'll start to have titles related to videos

[@sajjadbouzari217]

One of best talks I have ever heard 🖒

[@stndsure7275]

What happens in a world where science tells us over and over that there is no meaning and no purpose - where business and government tells us that consumption is the only worthwhile action.

[@sabahbubbler]

Thanks for sharing. This means a lot

[@marissa5512]

Great discovery! Thanks very much.

[@sachinpatel3254]

Big think is one of the best youtube channel

[@YouremadbigL]

Absolutely brilliant

[@selfelements8037]

6:49 Correct indeed! And in the age of information technology, to quote great thinker Jaime Wheal from Flow Genome Project, "We are drowning in information, but starving for motivation".

[@laurensacks5120]

amazing content as always

[@rolersch7332]

doing hard things in difficult times makes me happy

[@travisbardsley6045]

People care about meaning because it places a value on the skills they are learning in their labor. Not only are people gaining a wage in their labor but they are also gaining skills. Obviously if their labor results in creating products that have no meaning or value to society, then they know that the skills they are learning have very little value since their current job will soon become non-existent.

[@AnimatorJackie]

I needed to hear this

[@OceanSharkJF]

Very informative!

[@DavidZobristGames]

really good talk thanks

[@jimothy_hue]

however crudely manifested this idea of motivation is a central theme in art of war.

[@antonymoura2000]

I love this channel

[@ConspiciousCultist]

Commenting because of the you tube algorithm.

[@rumples584]

does that mean you're commenting so this type of content is recommended to you more?

[@Nemanoid]

how does it work

[@PaulRiddle0]

thanks

[@bh9257]

very true!!!!

[@darknecropsy]

I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life sitting at the beach drinking mojitos

[@AIex3199]

thats what they want you to think

[@Th3CoLoSSuS]

that can get boring really quick don't you think?

[@HansBaier]

Excellent

[@Blarghwaugh]

I must confess, I laughed like a madman at "We sucked away the joy." The humour is found in the sad truth of the implications involved. Meaning is everything; it's unfortunate we seem to require experiments to demonstrate the obvious.

[@chrismarklowitz1001]

Contentment is derived when your needs are met.Your physiological needs are met. You feel loved respected knowledgeable. You see beauty and you are focused on becoming the best version of yourself. This brings Contentment since your unconcious mind craves these things gs and without them you will always run from the pain or toward the intense desire to have them. An example of something that would bring this is a job which you improve while doing it. You make an impact in peoples lives. You like doing and you are good at. Respect. Becoming better. Love of others. That is what will fufill you. Pleasure however is momentary yet it doesn't change what will fulfill you according to Maslow. The above things. IT won't give you what you really crave and in the end you will realize you are more unhappy because you did nothing to help yourself.

[@IAmOnHiatus]

BIONICLES REPRESENTIN YAAAAAAAAAA

[@Doomroar]

HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@RabnubSatdnebQAlephKwetl]

This remember me a brazilian channel called "Nerdologia" which Ariely is quoted frequently.

[@dsavkay]

MY FAVOURITE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST

[@AntonioSilva-ld4dq]

Mixing three issues in one short video is too much but i got the ideas he tried to put on the table. For me happines is difficult to define so i believe he uses the sense of happines like physical and the psycological, thay the opposite is depression, for a runner he uses the the second one, and the other is momentary, the sense of happines. About motivation, i had two ideas of what he said there is chemical motivation like coffee or cocaine to do stuff and psycological that is soft and is about attitude and the way one thinks. The way i am. So people is motivated and active others are not. Providing meaning as a manager to a worker to motivate is difficult i see it as sales promotion you can always offer money to people to do a piece of work so is necessary find a way to give them meaning to what they do. Good presentation makes me think i hope to see him in another big think video. Love this channel i use to think. Good week to everyone.

[@Mrcharrio]

So meaning matters but how do you get meaning in the first place? How do you make people care?

[@johnnienow1472]

Mrcharrio you make it.

[@Hijodeganas1]

You can't. It has to work the other way around: you have to discover what others care about.

[@Blobby_Hill]

that cat shit ad was something else. god damn that was crazy.

[@schmooplesthesecond5997]

I think I can agree

[@TheAbortionWhoLived]

This man presented the experiemnt with sucking the fun out of building Bionicles with a smile on his face. I don't think this mad villain is supposed to walk among the ordinary people in the streets!

[@mayankmudgal1728]

gem

[@b3arodactyl]

Lmao he's so right about the marathon runner's facial expressions, I'm pretty sure I look like I'm about to die whenever I run.

[@nyjets2020]

this was fucking awesome. so insightful

[@sonjoysoren8540]

Wow

[@harunaadoga]

Cool

[@naimrahman1578]

A comment to tell the algorithm that this is important.

[@samuelleung9930]

Actually most of us know how important the meaning of doing sth should be,or knew at least.We just missed it at some point of our life,likely in adolescence or other transition period,and it seems we've lost it forever.So the question is ,how can we truly motivate ourselves inside.Actually it puzzles me for 100 years and still not get a hint of it.

[@TheDAPler]

My boss dismantles my bionicles in front of me every day... I need a new job.

[@samiranranaway7]

So, meaning gives motivation. If you want to do a task, find the reason to do it. Not just for the heck of it. I, sometimes, artificially tie meaning to a job I want to do right.

[@jasonbean7296]

happiness is a good healthy dump.

[@macaronisalad3038]

what is happiness i have not heard of felt that in 1000 years please tell me

[@Terra101]

Try MDMA

[@macaronisalad3038]

none of yku have dark senses of humor i hate you all

[@Terra101]

Meme Machine Thanks

[@bytefu]

+SShaw6174 Sounds like you struggle with lack of depression. Poor choice of words, I guess :) Depression was my companion too for many years, and it sucks big time. Even if you feel the need to do something and it's your favorite thing in the world, you still can't do it, and every little shit that happens to you stuck in your head and hurts constantly until you find another shitty episode to switch to. Happiness is not even a thing, just a foreign concept. But the worst part is actually other people, who are not educated about that and don't even think it's legit, and just make you feel bad for feeling bad. I wish we really struggled with lack of depression.

[@macaronisalad3038]

geebus have non of you heard of making a joke

[@matriaxpunk]

there are no objectively meaningful things. We are the ones who give value to the things we "decide" we want to pursue, otherwise we wouldn't want to pursue them in the first place. Also there is the "social" value associated with certain ends. But I don't agree that the only thing that matters is that a certain end is difficult to achieve. I can think of a lot of things very difficult to achieve that most of the people wouldn't find valuable at all. That something is hard to achieve doesn't make it valuable, it just makes it hard to achieve, period.

[@pasha3773]

👏

[@birgerkung]

No pain also gives gain.

[@krzysztofschubert-ann5313]

Maybe some people stopped much faster in the sisyphic condition also because of the empathy, they built less bionicles, because they saw they create sisyphic condition, intentionally or non-intentionally, for others.

[@wrathnoh]

skippidy boop to talk about addiction to social media, boppidy bop using suggested videos to keep addicted to ya.

[@carlranns6658]

I never heard of bionicles before

[@cyanidelizards]

I like Bionicle.

[@alejandronieto576]

the slide at the beginning is misleading.

[@blackmesa232323]

Damn it.... *Puts down bottle of Jack Daniels*

[@BefuddledBumpkin]

Type II fun

[@manuelgallardo7694]

Is it about questioning whats Happiness, Motivation & meaning. Or questioning how to be happy, motivate others or find meaning? all this is relative. Working out might be unpleasant for some but for fitness people being fit makes them happy for many reasons, being stronger, more attractive, healthier etc. and the Idea of the benefits of being fit motivates them to train constantly, also being fit is also meaningful because a fit body represents dedication, discipline and hard work. This is how the 3 concepts of Happiness, Motivation & Meaning applies only to Fit people and this 3 concepts are not absolute they are relative for other types of people. The point made by our Argentinian Fella is quite not clear and unspecific.

[@dimensiontraveler4264]

One must imagine sisyphus happy

[@TorquemadaTwist]

Let's wait a while before pursuing the pleasure principle because that takes control.

[@TrippleTee]

I love the way he says Bionicals

[@TheCrusaderRabbits]

What is a bionickle?

[@wtflac]

damn I thought this was going to be personal advice from Clive Owen.

[@elsagrace3893]

What is a bionical?

[@BrandonAngelDragon]

Good video, but I don't even know how to start motivating myself and give meaning after so many failures.. It's like I've seen my bionicle torn apart a million times by now... life sucks.

[@alluviatchainovska7093]

Shallow phatic talk - nice weather today 😂😂😂😂

[@muthuk]

The premise that a fickle state of the mind (happiness) is even thought of as something to aim for in life in itself is flawed to begin with & sets us up for failure since its by the nature of it fleeting..the goal should always be meaning, knowledge & wisdom..in some sense to expand the frontier of our species...everything else is just BS...a mere side show...its hard to swallow but the sooner we make peace with it the better are our chances for success & that fleeting state of mind, happiness

[@coppersense999]

This should have hundreds of likes. Everyone who failed to like it is obv stuck in a delusion created by American brainwashing. Hypocritical brainwashing, mind you.

[@leifharmsen]

What is a "bionicle"?!

[@relikvija]

I'm not worried about that shit keeps coming at me

[@apophenic_]

How much of our issues with motivation just boil down to a subconscious recognition that what we are doing isn't benefitting us fairly or at all. Your boss makes a dollar you make a dime has deeper psychological ramifications than we've been told. And I'm starting to think this was on purpose.

[@TheCatsor]

Can anyone explain me the conclusion here ?

[@partykrew666]

Victor Cuvillier that "meaning" in life is what drives us, not pleasure. so if you want to be a leader or motivate people, don't do it with money/booze/whatever, do it by inspiring them or making them believe what you are doing has lasting value

[@TheCatsor]

partykrew666 thank you ! It's very accurate

[@PeerGyntTheOnion]

Does anybody know who that hot guy in the opening image is? Sorry for being superficial

[@Only1Jabstab]

Some animations or pictures would make these vids a lot easier to watch and listen to...

[@rahulswami9256]

Meaning? What is he talking about what kind of meaning i can't understand

[@coppersense999]

In order to aspire to the happiness described at 1:15 one has to live at the higher levels of Maslov's pyramid. There is an assumption of privilege underlying the message of this video that ignores a vast population; granted a group that isn't likely to be be watching this video in the first place. But I'm here. And if I bought this line of reasoning uncritically, I would self-blame and end up sadly further isolated and defeated. Much as I hate to be a cheerleader of the benefits of victimhood, if we can set aside polarizing labels and keep a fresh, open mind then common sense will lead to useful insights. In my case, leads to a liberation from victimization toward greater empowerment and self-actualization. ... that was a whole lot of buzz words jammed together in a short sentence for someone advocating that we discard labels, I realize. *shrugs

[@gingerlori52]

"No pain, no gain." Is it a philosophy by and for martyrs?

[@kartikmessner2868]

when he smiles he looks like richard feynman.just saying

[@InMaTeofDeath]

All the things he said motivate you are the things that I don't want thus they don't motivate me, try again.

[@Devine3190]

InMaTeofDeath Exactly. Very simplistic talk IMO. Could get the same message from those brainless self-help books.

[@nyjets2020]

get tf outta here then. no one is forcing you to hate yourself

[@Devine3190]

myles d I don't hate myself whatsoever? You're just an ignorant simpleton. I enjoy the channel, doesn't mean I have to agree with every thinker's views.

[@yueyjon4422]

Life’s too short. There is no gain in pain. Just a waste of your precious time

[@rejy92]

what were they building?? bio nickel??

[@bobbyhalick]

Bionicle is a brand of buildable action figures designed by Lego