Sonja Lyubomirsky

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1,409 appearances 3 recordings 3 series first heard Feb 2026 last heard 25 Jun

Sonja Lyubomirsky’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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And it was really serendipitous how it all started.

Actually, today I'm on the Stanford campus.

Coincidentally, this is where it all started back in the fall of 1989.

This is where I started my PhD program in social psychology.

And the very first day of my program, I met with my new advisor.

His name is Lee Ross, and he was the world's leading expert on conflict and negotiation.

Seems like it has nothing to do with happiness, maybe the opposite of happiness.

And we took a walk around campus, and one of us asked, and I'm pretty sure it was him, what is the secret to happiness?

And why are some people happier than others?

And that's how it started.

So back in 1989, there really was no field of happiness.

Ed Diener, who's really the founder of the science of happiness, he actually didn't even call it happiness.

He called it subjective well-being.

So there's really only one scientist back then studying happiness.

And it's a great question to start with.

I define happiness the way that researchers define happiness, which is that it really has two components.

And the first component is people who are happy often experience positive emotions and

And that could be tranquility, enthusiasm, joy, serenity, pride, curiosity.

So depending on the person, depending on the situation.

Happy people experience more positive emotions.

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