Yale psychology professor Laurie Santos discusses empirical studies examining the psychological mechanisms behind the reported well-being of religious individuals.
Insight
Santos: Depriving Kids of Failure Drives Rising College Student Anxiety
“I mean, I think that's right, and I think this is one of the reasons we're seeing so much more anxiety in our college students today, right, is that they've never had a chance to mess up. They've never had a chance to do it on their own, and so when they final…”
Insight
Santos: Time Famine Harms Well-Being More Than Lack of Money
“A lot of the unhappiness hit that comes with poverty isn't necessarily a not having money hit, it's a not having time hit. You know, so she argues that time famine comes with, you know, being low income, and it's actually the time famine that's a real hit on w…”
Assertion Partly supported
Santos: Over-Intervention by Parents Causes Children to Give Up Faster
“What she finds is that when you give kids a very different puzzle later on, kids who've had that taking over condition, where the parents give the answer, give up much more quickly. And if you find ways to survey them about what they believe, like, they probab…”
Insight
Santos: Altruistic Actions Generate More Happiness Than Self-Care Luxuries
“Happiness is about achieving these accolades. It's not. We often think happiness is about self-care and treating ourselves and giving ourselves these luxuries. It's not. In fact, if anything, it's about doing nice things for others. That gives you more of a ki…”
Assertion Supported
Santos: Feeling Time-Famished Damages Well-Being as Much as Unemployment
“In fact, some work by Ashley Willans shows that if you self-report being time famished, that's as big a hit on your wellbeing as if you self-report being unemployed.”
Assertion Supported
Santos: Genetics Accounts for Only 30% to 40% of Happiness Variance
“You know, even the heritability of happiness is, is lower than you might expect. You know, estimates kind of vary, but it's probably around, you know, 40%, 30%. Like, it's not that all the variants and the happy people that you see out there in the world is li…”