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[hrodberht]

I'm still grubbing around for material for posts on LJ until it becomes a habit*, so I've settled on writing a slightly self-referential post about “why writing LJ posts about happiness is a good idea”.

One of the interesting things in the book Happiness (a product of our Waterstone's Piccadilly raid the other day) is Daniel Nettle's discussion of

Comments

[littlered2]

[...] apparently, there's a big difference between the results of postal surveys about happiness, and face-to-face interviews, because of 'impression management'. That is, we're a lot more likely to take a stiff-upper-lip approach when we're talking to other people rather than filling in a form, and thus claim that our happiness is higher.

This reminds me of what I heard about the surveying methods that resulted in the claim, about a year ago, that the non-heterosexual population of the UK was much lower than the ~10% figure normally given: apparently the new result was obtained by going door-to-door and asking people, which seems like a completely stupid way of assessing a sensitive subject like homosexuality/bisexuality/etc. The figure's lower when asking people face-to-face? WHAT A SHOCK.

The "feeling the way we act" stuff sounds good, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable due to its resemblance to denying/repressing one's feelings in front of others and keeping a stiff upper lip to keep others happy. I can see the benefits, and agree that wallowing doesn't generally help, but denying one's feelings, suppressing anger, etc., sounds a bit like being told not to make a fuss and upset other people.

[littlered2]

It's possible that I'm thinking of this episode of The Simpsons. Sample quote: "Well it doesn't matter how you feel inside, you know? It's what shows up on the surface that counts. That's what my mother taught me. Take all your bad feelings and push them down, all the way down, past your knees until you're almost walking on them. And then you'll fit in, and you'll be invited to parties, and boys will like you, and happiness will follow."

(NB: The above is not intended as a good way to live one's life.)