The Happiness Hypothesis: OBOC
Chapter Summaries
Author Jonathan Haidt provides a concise summary of each chapter.
Ch. 1 The Divided Self
The Rider, the Elephant and the Path: Haidt's metaphor to explain how the mind is divided into parts that sometimes conflict:
- Forty-five Years of Split Brain Research and Still Going StrongArticle in Neuroscience (2005) by psychologist Michael Gazzaniga, whose split-brain studies are important in the book.
- The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral JudgmentThis article by Haidt in Psychological Review (2001) argues that moral judgment is mostly a matter of quick gut feelings or intuitions and that moral reasoning is usually made up after the fact.
- Haidt Interview in The BelieverIn this 2005 interview in The Believer magazine, Haidt discusses the foundations of morality.
Ch. 2 Changing Your Mind
- Project Implicit- Social Attitudes TestThe test Haidt mentions you can take to test your implicit prejudice about race, gender, sexual orientation and other topics. From the Project Implicit organization, which educates the public about hidden biases.
- Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and ContagionThis article in Personality and Social Psychology Review (2001) provides an overview of negativity bias (the human mind reacts to bad things more quickly, strongly and persistently than to the equivalent of good things).
3 Methods for Changing Your Mind
- MeditationAn overview of meditation from the Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2019).
- Cognitive TherapyOverview of cognitive therapy from the Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2016)
- ProzacOverview of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) which include Prozac. From the Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2019).
Ch. 3 Reciprocity with a Vengeance
Influence by Haidt refers to studies in this book, including what happens when Christmas cards are sent to complete strangers, as evidence that people have a mindless, automatic reciprocity reflex.
- Reciprocal Concessions Procedure for Inducing Compliance: The Door-in-the-face TechniqueHaidt refers to studies in this journal article by Cialdini in which he found that concession leads to concession (college students saying no to working with juvenile delinquents for two years, but yes to chaperoning them on a trip to the zoo). He found the best way out is to fight reciprocity with reciprocity.
- Mimicry for Money: Behavioral Consequences of ImitationIn discussing reciprocity, Haidt writes, "the elephant is a natural mimic." He cites the experiments in this journal article (2003) which showed that waitresses who mimic their customers get larger tips.