People Are Not As Happy As They Say They Are

[Keith Maitland]

"One thing is clear from the study, however — people tend to egregiously overinflate their own reports of life satisfaction. It may be because of pressure to sound positive, fear of complaining, or as a defense mechanism"

http://www.psypost.org/2016/01/self-reported-well-being-doesnt-match-up-with-external-observation-40289

[Leonard James]

"People are not as happy as they say they are."

Blimey, I bet that gives you a lift, Keith! 

[Bubbles]

   

Heaven forbid we should dare to be happy!

We all have to be miserable!

We have our own Marvin ere!

Funniest Quotes by Marvin from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy




Marvin: “I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed.”
Trillian: “Well, we have something that may take your mind off it.”
Marvin: “It won’t work, I have an exceptionally large mind.“

Marvin: “I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number.”
Zem: “Er, five.”
Marvin: “Wrong. You see?”

Marvin: “You can blame the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation for making androids with GPP…”
Arthur: “Um… what’s GPP?”
Marvin: “Genuine People Personalities. I’m a personality prototype. You can tell, can’t you…?”

Arthur: I think that door just sighed.
Marvin: Ghastly, isn’t it? All the doors on this spaceship have been programmed to have a cheery and sunny disposition.

“Trillian is one of the least benightedly unintelligent life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.” –Marvin

Arthur: “Marvin, any ideas?”
Marvin: “I have a million ideas. They all point to certain death.”

“Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway so I don’t know why I bother to say it, oh God, I’m so depressed. Here’s another one of those self-satisfied doors. Life! Don’t talk to me about life.” –Marvin

“I could calculate your chance of survival, but you won’t like it.” –Marvin

“My capacity for happiness, you could fit into a matchbox without taking out the matches first” –Marvin

[Discussing the police ship]
Marvin: That ship hated me.
Ford: Ship? What happened to it? Do you know?
Marvin: It hated me because I talked to it.
Ford: You talked to it? What do you mean you talked to it?
Marvin: Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself into its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the universe to it.
Ford: And what happened?
Marvin: It committed suicide.

“Funny,” Marvin intoned funereally, “how just when you think life can’t possibly get any worse it suddenly does.”

“What’s up?” asked Ford.
“I don’t know,” said Marvin, “I’ve never been there.”

“The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million: they were the worst, too. The third ten million I didn’t enjoy at all. After that, I went into a bit of a decline. ” –Marvin

“I’d give you advice, but you wouldn’t listen. No one ever does.” –Marvin

Zaphod: “Can it Trillian, I’m trying to die with dignity.”
Marvin: “I’m just trying to die.”

“I’ve seen it. It’s rubbish.” –Marvin

“Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? ‘Cos I don’t.” –Marvin

“I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed.” –Marvin

“Not that anyone cares what I say, but the Restaurant is on the other end of the universe.” –Marvin

“I’m not getting you down at all am I” –Marvin

Trillian: Marvin… you saved our lives!
Marvin: I know. Wretched, isn’t it?

Marvin: “And then of course I’ve got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.”
Arthur: “Is that so?”
Marvin: “Oh yes. I mean I’ve asked for them to be replaced, but no one ever listens.”
Arthur: “I can imagine”

“Now the world has gone to bed
Darkness won’t engulf my head
I can see by infra-red
How I hate the night
Now I lay me down to sleep
Try to count electric sheep
Sweet dream wishes you can keep
How I hate the night” –Marvin

“You watch this door. It’s about to open again. I can tell by the intolerable air of smugness it suddenly generates.” –Marvin

“Let’s build robots with Genuine People Personalities,’ they said. So they tried it out with me. I’m a personality prototype. You can tell, can’t you?” –Marvin

Zaphod Beeblebrox: Into the interior of the planet. That is where we have to go. Down into the very depths of time itself where no man has trod these five million years. We are not gonna be great. We are not gonna be amazing. We are gonna be amazingly amazing!
Marvin: Sounds awful.
Zaphod Beeblebrox: Can it, Marvin.
Marvin: Life. Loathe it or ignore it. You can’t like it.

“Do you want me to sit in a corner and rust, or just fall apart where I’m standing?” –Marvin

Arthur: I lived on a beautiful planet once.
Marvin: Did it have oceans?
Arthur: Oh yes; great big rolling oceans.
Marvin: I hate oceans.

 

Sounds familiar !

[Gonnagle]

Dear Keith,

Nothing new under the sun, have a wee read of Ecclesiastes, it's a laugh a minute stuff.

Gonnagle

[floo]

"One thing is clear from the study, however — people tend to egregiously overinflate their own reports of life satisfaction. It may be because of pressure to sound positive, fear of complaining, or as a defense mechanism"

http://www.psypost.org/2016/01/self-reported-well-being-doesnt-match-up-with-external-observation-40289

Oh for pity's sake Keith, give your miserable threads a rest! I know a good number of people who are genuinely happy!

[Hope]

It's worth bearing in mind that the thread title can also be looked at positively - that people are 'under'-reporting their happiness.

[Outrider]

"One thing is clear from the study, however — people tend to egregiously overinflate their own reports of life satisfaction. It may be because of pressure to sound positive, fear of complaining, or as a defense mechanism"

http://www.psypost.org/2016/01/self-reported-well-being-doesnt-match-up-with-external-observation-40289

Let's say that our memories are deceiving us, that our recollection of happiness is inflated - that means we're happier than a purely rational assessment suggests that we should be, but that just means that we tend to be happy.

We tend to discount negative experiences and focus on the positive. We can't 'misrepresent' our happiness, we are exactly as happy as we feel. We can fail to account, accurately for our past, or fail to justify the degree of happiness, but happiness is subjective: if we feel happy, we're happy.

It may well be a defence mechanism against a harsh and hostile reality - seems to be working.

O.

[Brownie]

My first thought was, "Big deal".  Obviously many people are not quite what they seem but who goes around exposing their personal feelings to everyone?

Let's just accept that no-one can be happy all the time and that everyone will experience heartache at times.  It's called being human.  As someone above said, there is nothing new under the sun.

[Hope]

"One thing is clear from the study, however — people tend to egregiously overinflate their own reports of life satisfaction. ... "

Have to say that, from a personal experience POV, the opposite is the experience I've had.  Many of those I have met over the years would more correctly have been described as "egregiously underinflating their own reports of life satisfaction".

[wigginhall]

Heaven knows, I'm miserable now. 

[OH MY WORLD!]

Keith,
Did you get this outlook on life from your daddy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrG4TEcSuRg

[Humph Warden Bennett]

Yet A is happy!
 Oh, so happy!
 Laughing, Ha! ha!
 Chaffing, Ha! ha!
 Nectar quaffing, Ha! ha! ha!
 Ever joyous, ever gay
 Happy, undeserving A!

 
 If I were Fortune which I'm not
 B should enjoy A's happy lot
 And A should die in miserie
 That is, assuming I am KEITH

(With apologies to WS Gilbert)