Don't Hire Happy People
The happier your mood, the more likely you are to make bigoted judgments -- like deciding that someone is guilty of a crime simply because he's a member of a minority group. Why?
One hypothesis claims that satisfaction reduces the motivation for analytical thought. So happy people fall back on simple stereotypes -- including malicious ones.
I think it's because happy people don't experience anything as an insurmountable problem, so they are unable to grasp the magnitude of the problems other people face. This makes them unsympathetic.
This theory seems to be backed up by the fact that a large part of happiness seems to be genetic. Happy people just don't have the capacity to experience the world as being so bad.
British psychologist, Richie Bentall, says that "Happy people overestimate their control over environmental events, give unrealistically positive evaluations of their own achievements, believe that others share their unrealistic opinions about themselves and show a general lack of evenhandedness when comparing themselves to others.'
Since happiness promotes of arrogance, it won't come as a surprise to protesters that the US ranks near the top in international surveys of happiness. Nor that religious people are happier than others.
It is a bit of a surprise that marriage fosters happiness, but not that having children doesn't.
And, here's something interesting: money does little to boost happiness. This is an idea that should be conveyed to candidates when you can't offer them more money to move. It might help convince them of the value of non-monetary rewards.
More here and at FuturePundit
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