{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Bruce Hood on the Science of Happiness","description":" Are university students unhappy? We won\u2019t generalize, but many are, and this was something Bruce Hood noted. Being an experimental psychologist who teaches at the University of Bristol,  an opportunity presented itself. Why not start a course on the science of happiness, and while teaching it collect data from the students attending? The resulting course (created with advice from one his former students, Laurie Santos) proved popular, and Hood last year published a book, The Science of Happiness: Seven Lessons for Living Well. In this Social Science Bites podcast, Hood explains to interviewer David Edmonds the scientific basis of happiness, some details on how to measure it, and then some of those lessons for harvesting its benefits. Hood explains how scholarship has determined some genetic basis for happiness, how circumstances contribute to but don\u2019t dictate happiness, and how individuals focus more on the negative than the positive, which clearly not the most nurturing environment for happiness. There is a bias towards negativity, he says, \u201cSo that's why we know the negative things more quickly and more loudly than the positive.\u201d That sounds bad (see \u2013 negative). But there\u2019s another bias at play, one that also favors optimism, that Hood attempts to harness. \u201cSo we tend to see the future as grim, and we have these distortions. But what's interesting, if you ask people, \u2018Do you think to yourself individually you'll be better off in five years\u2019 time?\u2019 Then it seems to switch. People seem to say, \u2018Yeah, I think I will be better.\u2019 So, it's a kind of interesting paradox that we think the world's going to hell in a basket. And yet, as individuals, we think things can get better.\u201d Hood\u2019s research interests arose around the visual development of infants, and then evolved to include intuitive theories, self-identity, essentialism and the cognitive processes behind magical thinking in adults. It was in relation to those that Hood first appeared on Social Science Bites, addressing the human belief in the supernatural. You can listen to that podcast, and also enjoy a lovely Alex Cagan poster built around the episode. ","author_name":"Social Science Bites","author_url":"http:\/\/www.socialsciencebites.com","html":"