Most People Think Their Lives Are Alright

[Keith Maitland]

The Pollyanna Principal is the tendency for individuals to remember previous pleasure as being much more significant than previous pain.

For example, I can remember getting a good score on a test that happened three months ago, but it is difficult for me to be able to visualize the headache I had a day ago.

Suffering seems to be a much more potent feeling than pleasure, except when it comes to memory.

It is my own personal theory that since we base so much of our decisions and lives on memories, and we tend to focus much more intensely on the pleasurable aspects of our past, that this gives us a kind of motivation to keep going, to expect the future will also be like this.

This stems from a general observation that I've had concerning how people evaluate their lives; most people think their lives are alright, and I've been wondering why this is the case and why they don't realize their lives aren't as great as they think they are. I'm wondering if Pollyanneanism is some kind of drug that masks reality and allows people to be happy, considering substantial scientific research has shown that people who think this way take longer to realize negative things in their lives, and "overestimate" the positive.

[Sriram]

You want people to feel negative about their lives?! 

[Shaker]

You want people to feel negative about their lives?!

In which paragraph did Keith state this, please?

[Sriram]

You want people to feel negative about their lives?!

In which paragraph did Keith state this, please?

"...most people think their lives are alright, and I've been wondering why this is the case and why they don't realize their lives aren't as great as they think they are".

[Shaker]

You want people to feel negative about their lives?!

In which paragraph did Keith state this, please?

"...most people think their lives are alright, and I've been wondering why this is the case and why they don't realize their lives aren't as great as they think they are".

That's not a statement of Keith's wanting people to feel negative about their lives though is it, as you wrote?

[Sriram]

I am not in a mood to argue pointlessly with you ...Shaker.   Do it on your own. 

[Rhiannon]

I always felt guilty that my most vivid memories from my childhood were of bad things, until I realised that as a parent it was imperative that I remembered how this stuff felt in order not to allow my children to go through the same thing.

Obviously having kids means you really have to keep going. But I've had a lot of grim stuff in the past decade and I don't feel particularly Pollyanna-ish about any of it. But from it I've learned what matters and what doesn't - above all that freedom is beyond price - and although circumstances mean I'm not quite where I want to be yet I've realised that the journey is as important as arriving - if we ever do.

Something else that having kids has brought home to me is that they naturally have a huge passion for life, a zest for adventure and an optimism that things will be good. I cant remember ever feeling like that but they are good to be around to get those feelings back.

[Rhiannon]

Aside from being a parent it's the small things that make life beautiful. Keith and I have discussed this before, but as far as I'm concerned as long as there are clouds to gaze at, trees above me, the smell of freshly cut hay in the breeze and a furry companion by my side, the world's ok.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

The Pollyanna Principal is the tendency for individuals to remember previous pleasure as being much more significant than previous pain.

That's surely to do with the purpose of pain i.e. that it is a homeostatic mechanism there to tell us that we are not in a state of stability.
That's why occasions of utter euphoria are also hard to recreate in the memory.

[floo]

I think one has to try to put one's life in perspective. On the whole I think I have had a very fortunate one compared to many. True the religious element of my childhood didn't do me any favours, but in other ways it wasn't a bad one. I grew up on a wonderful island and had much more freedom to explore and do my own thing than most kids today. I was extremely fond of my maternal grandmother who moved from the UK to an apartment in our home in 1952, before returning to the UK not long before I moved there in 1969, when I married. Grancie's apartment was my refuge when I was in the deep proverbial with my parents, as was often the case; I did the craziest things, often putting my life in danger! (Not much has changed in that respect! )

I have been married for 46 years and have wonderful children and grandchildren. Yes it is sad my husband has been brain damaged for nearly nine years, but that is life.

I hope I have some good years left, before my kids finally decide on the cliff they threaten to chuck me off when I get too senile!

[Nearly Sane]

Surely , given we are subjective beings, how we think our lives are is how they are? The problem with trying to apply a layer of objectivity, as Keith supposed he is doing, is that it is merely his subjectivity that he is using to evaluate other people's lives on scales which remain subjective.

[Rhiannon]

NS, it's all just a story. The question is what meaning do we give to the story. Sometimes the best option may be to have no meaning at all - clouds, Sky, grass, dog have no meaning, but perhaps they also provide all the meaning we need.

[Shaker]

Meaning - of the ultimate rather than proximate kind anyway - seems like a prison to me, a cage to be held captive in.

Fortunately there's absolutely no indication that there are any ultimate meanings to be had.

[ekim]

Suffering seems to be a much more potent feeling than pleasure, except when it comes to memory.

If that is the case, perhaps it is because of a tendency of people to want to repeat what causes pleasure and so it becomes reinforced as a memory trace.  Whereas pain (unless it leads to pleasure) tends to be avoided and perhaps more easily suppressed unless it is highly traumatic, in which case the remembered pain finds other outlets as in post traumatic stress disorders.

[Rhiannon]

Meaning - of the ultimate rather than proximate kind anyway - seems like a prison to me, a cage to be held captive in.

Fortunately there's absolutely no indication that there are any ultimate meanings to be had.

For me life having 'meaning' means having a valid reason to get out of bed. Nothing more.

[Udayana]

Yes ekim, we repeat those things that give us pleasure and try to avoid those that cause anxiety or pain. That includes rehearsing and reinforcing any lessons learned through memory. At a very simplistic level at least - we probably need a slightly more sophisticated theory to compare the fun of being on a roller coaster ride with the pain of falling off a bike. Or drug or gambling addictions, schadenfreude, music.

We may have evolved to be this way, our real "selves" being unimportant. As far as nature is concerned we exist for the benefit, continued existence in some form, of the group - more than for individuals. This could support Keiths view that the true nature of reality is hidden from us: Optimism is better than pessimism for reproducing the species, though individually pessimists live longer as they are better at avoiding risks.

Also may explain aspects of religion - the expectation of happiness being possible even after death.

[Nearly Sane]

As ever it is a time to quote the great philosopher Angel ' When nothing you do matters, all that matters is what you do'

[Shaker]

Meaning - of the ultimate rather than proximate kind anyway - seems like a prison to me, a cage to be held captive in.

Fortunately there's absolutely no indication that there are any ultimate meanings to be had.

For me life having 'meaning' means having a valid reason to get out of bed. Nothing more.

I'm not disagreeing. But there are the ultimate, one-size-fits-all meanings that religions (especially theistic and especially especially monotheistic religions) purport to provide (falsely, AFAIC) and then there are the proximate meanings - subjective; individual; temporary - by which other people live their lives (the only ones as I see it).

[Shaker]

As ever it is a time to quote the great philosopher Angel ' When nothing you do matters, all that matters is what you do'

Hadn't encountered that before, but I like it 

[Udayana]

If a robot is programmed to collect bananas I think we can all agree that collecting bananas will be seem meaningful to it (?).

If the robot understands that it is designed for banana collection, is banana collection still meaningful?

[Shaker]

Because the robot then understands that its meaning is imposed from the outside, you mean?

[Rhiannon]

Meaning - of the ultimate rather than proximate kind anyway - seems like a prison to me, a cage to be held captive in.

Fortunately there's absolutely no indication that there are any ultimate meanings to be had.

For me life having 'meaning' means having a valid reason to get out of bed. Nothing more.

I'm not disagreeing. But there are the ultimate, one-size-fits-all meanings that religions (especially theistic and especially especially monotheistic religions) purport to provide (falsely, AFAIC) and then there are the proximate meanings - subjective; individual; temporary - by which other people live their lives (the only ones as I see it).

That's their problem.

[Shaker]

Alas it isn't just their problem, because history shows that when people become so utterly, rigidly, unshakeably convinced of the absolute rightness of their meaning, be it Catholicism, fascism, Stalinism or similar, they tend to want to impose that meaning on others.

[Udayana]

Because the robot then understands that its meaning is imposed from the outside, you mean?

Yes, or it somehow evolved to collect bananas.

[Shaker]

Because the robot then understands that its meaning is imposed from the outside, you mean?

Yes, or it somehow evolved to collect bananas.

If the robot is able to develop sufficient intelligence it could come to know that it evolved.