Introduction to Happiness

1. Introduction to Happiness Dan Turton PHIL106 - 2008

2. My Goal Today • Get you to believe two things: • 1) Happiness is real • 2) Happiness is good

3. Are you Happy? • A simple and a complicated question • How we go about answering it depends on what we take ‘happiness’ to mean • Or, it depends on how the question is asked

4. How Can I Find Out if You Are Happy? • How are you feeling right now (from 1 to 7)? • 1= very bad, 4= OK, 7= very good • All things considered, how happy are you these days (from 1 to 7)? • 1= very unhappy, 4= OK, 7= very happy • On the whole, how good do you think your life is (from 1 to 7)? • 1= very bad, 4= OK, 7= very good

5. How Can You Find Out if You Are Happy? (So You Can Answer) • How are you feeling right now (from 1 to 7)? • Introspection • All things considered, how happy are you these days (from 1 to 7)? • Introspection, comparative judgement • On the whole, how good do you think your life is (from 1 to 7)? • Introspection, comparative judgement, relative to conception of ‘the good life’

6. Three Levels of Happiness • Nettle (in the course readings) groups happiness into three different types or levels

7. Level One Happiness: Feeling Happy in the Moment • How are you feeling right now? • Introspection • Level One Happiness (Nettle) • Mood • Pleasure • Joy • Absence of pain and suffering (negative feelings) • Fear, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Pain

8. Level One Happiness: Feeling Happy in the Moment • Is there really such a thing? • How good are we at getting it right? • Introspection • Smiling. • Brain scans • How good is it to have?

9. Level Two Happiness: Judging Your Happiness • All things considered, how happy are you these days? • Introspection, comparative judgement • Level Two Happiness (Nettle) • Total net Level One happiness • Well-being • Satisfaction • Judgement about feelings • Can be distorted by biased judgements

10. Level Two Happiness: Judging Your Happiness • Is there really such a thing? • How good are we at getting it right? • Appraisal biases • Aspirational biases • How good is it to have?

11. Level Three Happiness: Thinking You Have a Good Life • On the whole, how good do you think your life is? • Introspection, comparative judgement, relative to conception of ‘the good life’ • Level Three Happiness (Nettle) • Eudaimonia • Fulfilling potential • Quality of life • Doesn’t always require Level 1 or 2 happiness

12. Level Three Happiness: Thinking You Have a Good Life • Is there really such a thing? • Subjectively: yes • Objectively: interesting question • How good are we at getting it right? • How good is it to have?

13. Happiness ‘Continuum’ Level 1 • Momentary feelings • Mood • Pleasure or joy • Not suffering Level 2 • Judgements about feelings • Net level 1 happiness • Well-being • satisfaction Level 3 • Holistic evaluation of value of life • Flourishing • Needn’t include happiness More emotional, sensual, and reliable More cognitive, moral, and easily biased

14. Next Two Weeks • Level One & Two Happiness, enjoying and being satisfied with your life, is what we will be mainly discussing over the next 2 weeks • Happiness and Advertising • Happiness and Bioethics

15. Happiness & Advertising 1 Dan Turton

16. Happiness ‘Continuum’ Level 1 • Momentary feelings • Mood • Pleasure or joy • Not suffering Level 2 • Judgements about feelings • Net level 1 happiness • Well-being • satisfaction Level 3 • Holistic evaluation of value of life • Flourishing • Needn’t include happiness More emotional, sensual, and reliable More cognitive, moral, and easily biased

17. Today • Start addressing the question: • Is advertising immoral? • An explanation of advertising • A defense of advertising • Setting up some of the moral issues

18. Advertising is… • Communication from a specific source that intends to inform and influence the audience so that they believe something and/or behave in a certain way • It is usually: • Persuading people to purchase a brand/product • Paid for • Using mass media

19. Advertising might also be… • Rosser Reeves • Manager of a successful advertising company • While holding up two coins: • “[Making] you think that this quarter is more valuable than that one”

20. The Role of Advertising • Advertising supports marketing and business function. • A modern business model: • Perform consumer research • Develop new product based on research • Advertise product • Sell product • Importantly, both the business and the consumers are thought to benefit from this

21. The Benefits of Advertising • Advertising helps consumers decide what to buy • Informs about the existence of new products • Informs about new uses for existing products • Informs about differences between products • Advertising provides incentives to: • Make differentiated products, and • Innovative products

22. The Benefits of Advertising 2 • Advertising is entertainment • Many ads are: • Funny • Interesting • Artistic • Appealing in other ways

23. The Benefits of Advertising 3 • Advertising is good for the economy • It is a huge industry • It employs a lot of people • It stimulates economic growth by connecting more of consumers needs and wants with solutions • Economic growth is good • Means you can get more things you want

24. The Benefits of Advertising 3 • Advertising is good for the economy • It is a huge industry • It employs a lot of people • It stimulates economic growth by connecting more of consumers needs and wants with solutions • Economic growth is good • Means you can get more things you want

25. The Benefits of Advertising 4 • Winston Churchill: • “Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men. It creates wants for a better standard of living… It spurs individual exertion and greater production.” • Advertising improves our well-being

26. So, What’s Wrong with Advertising? • Apparently, advertising deceives people into buying things that they don’t really need • Apparently, advertising lies, deceives and misleads • Apparently, advertising makes people think they need things that they shouldn’t even want

27. Advertising Doesn’t Lie • Reasons why advertisers don’t lie • Misleading ads are reported and removed from circulation • ASA: “Truthful Presentation- Advertisements should not contain any statement or visual presentation or create an overall impression which directly or by implication, omission, ambiguity or exaggerated claim is misleading or deceptive, is likely to deceive or mislead the consumer, makes false and misleading representation, abuses the trust of the consumer or exploits his/her lack of experience or knowledge. (Obvious hyperbole, identifiable as such, is not considered to be misleading).”

28. Advertising Doesn’t Lie • Reasons why advertisers don’t lie • Misleading ads are reported and removed from circulation • Lies about product quality are soon discovered, making the lying company go out of business • Really important product categories have extra regulations to prevent lying • Advertisers don’t want to tarnish the reputation of advertising generally

29. Advertising Doesn’t Make Us Buy Things We Don’t Need • Advertising never forces anyone to do anything • Advertising does influence our purchase decisions (at least it intends to) • But what is wrong with that? • Advertising can’t encourage you to want something you really don’t need • Advertising can only help you fulfill wants and needs you already have

30. Should Advertising be Allowed to Help Us Fulfill Our Wants? • Should we stop people from helping others to fulfill their wants? • Depends on the wants… • Some things we want are bad for others • Some things we want are bad for ourselves

31. Should Advertising Help Us Fulfill Our Wants? • Sure, people shouldn’t be encouraged to harm others but… • Who should decide what we should and shouldn’t want (for our own good)? • What is better, freedom or having the government protect us from our own wants? • Why shouldn’t I be able to do whatever I want with my money (without hurting others)? • Consumer Sovereignty: Surely I have that right! • Where do we draw the line?

32. Summary • Advertising is good because: • It helps consumers decide what to buy • It provides incentives for innovation • At least some of it is entertaining • Its good for the economy • It allows us to improve our lives (as we see fit) by helping us to satisfy our wants and needs • Busting the myths about advertising: • Advertising does not lie or deceive • Advertising cannot make people buy things they don’t want

33. Happiness & Advertising 2 (Part 1) Dan Turton

34. Last Time • Advertising is good because: • It helps consumers decide what to buy • It provides incentives for innovation • At least some of it is entertaining • Its good for the economy • It allows us to improve our lives (as we see fit) by helping us to satisfy our wants and needs • Busting the myths about advertising: • Advertising does not lie or deceive • Advertising cannot make people buy things they don’t want

35. Today • Clive Hamilton's argument that advertising is immoral and should be banned • The advertisers argument about how advertising helps us is flawed • Advertising also makes us unhappy (Next time)

36. Problem: Margin of Discontent • Gap between what we have and what we want • Hamilton mentions two solutions: • Economic growth solution: • “People satisfy their wants by increasing their possessions, thus becoming happier” • ‘Sages’ solution: • “Give up wanting”

37. Neo-Liberal Argument(Roughly According to Hamilton) • Reducing the margin of discontent makes people happier • Economic growth helps consumers to reduce their margin of discontent • Advertising encourages economic growth • Advertising helps consumers to make better decisions about how to reduce the margin of discontent c) Therefore, advertising helps make people happier

38. Hamilton’s Refutation of the Neo-Liberal Argument • More $$ (economic growth) does not make us happier • Therefore, either P1 or P2 is false • Advertising does not help consumers to make better decisions about how to reduce the margin of discontent • Therefore, P4 is false

39. Does $$ Make Us Happy? • Reducing the margin of discontent makes people happier • Economic growth helps consumers to reduce their margin of discontent • If 1. and 2. are both true then why have we gotten richer but not happier? • Evidence?

41. Materialism Doesn’t Pay Very High

42. Adaptation • Lottery winners return to pretty much the same level of happiness after 1 year • The more we have: • The more we want and • The more we think we need • Evidence?

43. So, Does $$ Make Us Happy? • So, unless you are materialistic, more $$ makes very little difference to our happiness – much less than: • A rewarding job • A loving relationship • Many more things • But materialistic people seem to have a pretty strange idea of happiness • Having said all this… who would not want to win lotto?

44. Possible Neo-Liberal Response(Consumer Sovereignty) • Remember Consumer Sovereignty? • Regardless of happiness, we have a right to do what we want with our money • Economic growth gives people more freedom to choose whatever they wish to do with their lives and their money • Without advertising consumers would find it very difficult to exercise this freedom

45. Hamilton Fights Back • Advertisers claim to be helping consumers to freely choose how to best satisfy their needs and wants – but this is false! • Consumers do not freely choose between products because advertising manipulates our preferences – (Consumer Sovereignty is a myth) • More choice doesn’t help us satisfy our needs and wants • Therefore, P4 is false

46. Consumer Sovereignty is a Myth! • Consumers do not freely choose between products because advertising manipulates our preferences • Our preferences are formed inside, not outside, of the marketplace • Indeed, consumers values, goals and personal identities are all formed inside the marketplace! • Evidence?

47. The Abundance of Real Choice is a Myth • The abundance of choices advertising provides are limited to meaningless choices between variations of things that we didn’t need in the first place • “Most advertising, unfortunately, is devoted to an attempt to build up… irrational preferences for certain brands… to persuade consumers [to] buy Bumpo rather than Bango” – Prof. Boulding • Evidence?

49. Coke vs. Pepsi

50. How Well Did Hamilton Fight Back? • Advertisers claim to be helping consumers to freely choose how to best satisfy their needs and wants • Hamilton claims that: • Advertising coerces consumers into satisfying the greedy financial wants of businesses, not their own wants or needs • Advertising doesn’t provide more real choice, so it doesn’t help consumers choose what they really want