Laurie Santos || The Science of Happiness

Today we welcome Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Her course, “Psychology and the Good Life,”is Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years and has been adapted into a free Coursera program that has been taken by over 3.3 million people to date. Dr. Santos is a winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching from institutions such as Yale and the American Psychological Association. She is also the podcast host of The Happiness Lab. In this episode, I talk to Dr. Laurie Santos about happiness. People are unhappy not for lack of trying, but it’s because they’re applying ineffective strategies. Dr. Santos identifies some of the cognitive biases that can hinder our happiness. There is no magical antidote to our problems, but there are ways to boost well-being in small but significant ways. We also discuss resilience, social justice and mindfulness. Website: drlauriesantos.com Twitter: @lauriesantos   Topics 03:04 Laurie’s interest in well-being 06:54 Our expectations about happiness  09:44 Defining and measuring happiness 13:59 Predictors of resilience  15:43 Laurie’s happiness score 17:39 “Self-care is a political act” 22:39 The Feel Good, Do Good Effect 24:11 The role of culture, environment, genes 27:55 Contributions to the science of happiness 32:13 The impact of Laurie’s research 35:19 Cognitive biases that influence happiness 38:16 Do mindfulness interventions work? 44:37 The Happiness Lab’s new season See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.