Dr. Robert Waldinger
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
There's inborn temperament.
And we're all kind of on a continuum that we don't understand that well.
A great deal of it's genetically determined.
But then, of course, there's so much environmental determination of happiness.
And of just mood in general.
So you can take the happiest person and traumatize them and make them depressed and withdrawn.
You can take someone who's very withdrawn and unhappy and move the needle some toward greater happiness.
So it's always a mix of biology and the environment.
So can you change from being an eel if you are an eel?
That's a great question.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Huh.
Well, there's a psychologist, Sonia Lubomirsky, who did a big analysis of how much of our happiness is under our control.
She took a lot of studies and her estimate is that about 50% of our happiness is genetics.
It's genetically based.
And about 10% is based on our current life circumstances.
If I'm having a bad time right now in my life, but only 10%.
There's no way.
Yeah.