Have you ever wondered why despite achieving success, a lot of people still feel dissatisfied? Laura Santos, professor of Yale University, explains that the reason behind it is because “our minds are filled with a ton of little glitches that make it hard to enjoy the great things that we have.''
Last Monday at the Aspen Ideas Festival (co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic), Santos, delivered a crash-course version of the most popular course in the university in less than an hour.
Santos presented two primary “glitches” of our brain and how to counteract them. She added that these biases can’t just be shut off, but we can understand them. For example:
The first glitch has to do with how the brain acclimates to things it’s repeatedly exposed to. This happens in terms of sensory perception—a recurring noise can fade into the background after an extended period of time—as well as with perceptions of more abstract things. One category of this latter phenomenon is what psychologists call “hedonic adaptation.” “When we first get something that’s awesome, it feels really awesome. But then we get used to it pretty quickly,” Santos explained. She said this can apply to buying an enchanting new house or a fancy new car, as well as getting into Yale (which feels a lot better on the day admissions decisions come out than it does, say, by the time midterm exams roll around).
The article is an eye-opener. Check it over at The Atlantic and read the rest of the explanation yourself.
Image: Pixabay