Dr. Laurie Santos

Yeah, if you ain't got any resources, you definitely will feel happier if you can get them. But if you have a lot, getting more really isn't going to help.

Yeah, if you ain't got any resources, you definitely will feel happier if you can get them. But if you have a lot, getting more really isn't going to help.

Yeah. I mean, I think in the original Kahneman data, he found that it doesn't, right? I mean, how much stress you report on a daily basis was literally one of the measures they were using for happiness. But I think you're right. The risk around it can buffer it, right? I think if you're at a certain set of means, you know that if a bad thing happens, you're going to be okay.

Yeah. I mean, I think in the original Kahneman data, he found that it doesn't, right? I mean, how much stress you report on a daily basis was literally one of the measures they were using for happiness. But I think you're right. The risk around it can buffer it, right? I think if you're at a certain set of means, you know that if a bad thing happens, you're going to be okay.

Yeah. I mean, I think in the original Kahneman data, he found that it doesn't, right? I mean, how much stress you report on a daily basis was literally one of the measures they were using for happiness. But I think you're right. The risk around it can buffer it, right? I think if you're at a certain set of means, you know that if a bad thing happens, you're going to be okay.

So it can allow you to make riskier decisions. It can allow you to do things that you might not do if you're right at that boundary where losing some money might pop you back down. I think the problem is that one of the ways we evaluate our financial situation, but pretty much every situation, I think this goes back to the neuroscience, is that we don't do it objectively. We do it relative.

So it can allow you to make riskier decisions. It can allow you to do things that you might not do if you're right at that boundary where losing some money might pop you back down. I think the problem is that one of the ways we evaluate our financial situation, but pretty much every situation, I think this goes back to the neuroscience, is that we don't do it objectively. We do it relative.

So it can allow you to make riskier decisions. It can allow you to do things that you might not do if you're right at that boundary where losing some money might pop you back down. I think the problem is that one of the ways we evaluate our financial situation, but pretty much every situation, I think this goes back to the neuroscience, is that we don't do it objectively. We do it relative.

And when you think about your relative financial status, there's lots of other folks around to whom you're comparing yourself. I think one of the reasons that rich folks don't necessarily think they're less stressed when they have very high levels of wealth and so on is because they're looking around and everyone's doing much better than them.

And when you think about your relative financial status, there's lots of other folks around to whom you're comparing yourself. I think one of the reasons that rich folks don't necessarily think they're less stressed when they have very high levels of wealth and so on is because they're looking around and everyone's doing much better than them.

And when you think about your relative financial status, there's lots of other folks around to whom you're comparing yourself. I think one of the reasons that rich folks don't necessarily think they're less stressed when they have very high levels of wealth and so on is because they're looking around and everyone's doing much better than them.

And this is just a fundamental feature of the way we evaluate stuff, right, is that we don't evaluate in objective terms. We evaluate relative to these reference points. And honestly, as you get richer, you're kind of going up this sort of logarithmic scale where the reference points are getting even further away from you.

And this is just a fundamental feature of the way we evaluate stuff, right, is that we don't evaluate in objective terms. We evaluate relative to these reference points. And honestly, as you get richer, you're kind of going up this sort of logarithmic scale where the reference points are getting even further away from you.

And this is just a fundamental feature of the way we evaluate stuff, right, is that we don't evaluate in objective terms. We evaluate relative to these reference points. And honestly, as you get richer, you're kind of going up this sort of logarithmic scale where the reference points are getting even further away from you.

And I think that that can have a huge hit on people's perception of their own happiness and their perception of their stress levels, right? Because they're working towards a goal that's probably not going to make them that much happier, right? but they haven't kind of abandoned this intuition that more money will make me happy.

And I think that that can have a huge hit on people's perception of their own happiness and their perception of their stress levels, right? Because they're working towards a goal that's probably not going to make them that much happier, right? but they haven't kind of abandoned this intuition that more money will make me happy.

And I think that that can have a huge hit on people's perception of their own happiness and their perception of their stress levels, right? Because they're working towards a goal that's probably not going to make them that much happier, right? but they haven't kind of abandoned this intuition that more money will make me happy.

On my podcast, The Happiness Lab, I had this guy, Clay Cockrell, who was really fun. He's a wealth psychologist. So he's a mental health professional that only works with the 0.0001%. And already we should say, well, If wealth made you happy, he should be out of a job. But no, he's lots of clients, lots of, I guess, very well-paying clients. He looked like he was doing well for himself.

On my podcast, The Happiness Lab, I had this guy, Clay Cockrell, who was really fun. He's a wealth psychologist. So he's a mental health professional that only works with the 0.0001%. And already we should say, well, If wealth made you happy, he should be out of a job. But no, he's lots of clients, lots of, I guess, very well-paying clients. He looked like he was doing well for himself.

On my podcast, The Happiness Lab, I had this guy, Clay Cockrell, who was really fun. He's a wealth psychologist. So he's a mental health professional that only works with the 0.0001%. And already we should say, well, If wealth made you happy, he should be out of a job. But no, he's lots of clients, lots of, I guess, very well-paying clients. He looked like he was doing well for himself.