SINGAPORE: The next time when you are torn between
splurging on an expensive bag and a getaway to a resort island, opt
for the experience.
That's according to these speakers from Nanyang
Technological University (NTU) and Technology, Entertainment,
Design (TEDxNTU).
Pursuing absolute rather than relative forms of
happiness was one of the many ideas discussed at the TEDxNTU
forum.
TED is a US-based, non-profit organisation that holds conferences
aimed at sharing ideas and inspiring people.
Dr Nick Powdthavee, Assistant Professor at NTU School of Humanities
and Social Sciences, said: "No matter how well you do, it's a
relative thing. It's not just good enough to be good enough
anymore. You have to be better than other people. And that's really
bad for our happiness.
"Humans tend to pursue the relative kind of happiness, because in
relative, they're much scarcer. The friendships that we have at
home, we take them for granted. But we know that we care about
other people's status. If someone moves up the ladder, we become
unhappy if we stay still or move down. What happens is we're stuck
in a happiness treadmill - we will never become happier because we
cannot stop other people to pursue their own dreams."
Dr Powdthavee said this culture is evident even in Singapore and in
particular, the Asian education system.
"I used to teach in England, and when we were asked to grade
students, everybody can get A's if they meet an absolute standard
but not here, not in Asia in general. There's a bell curve."
Attaining that elusive state of being happy could also be as simple
as responding in the right way.
Associate Professor Maureen Frances Neihart, Head of NIE
Psychological Studies, said: "When people share good news with us,
there's four ways in which we can respond. We can ignore them;
change the subject; acknowledge them; or we can acknowledge,
affirm, and invite them to say a little bit more about it. It turns
out that the last kind of response is key to building strong
relationships. Relationships are one of the strongest predictors of
how happy people are.
Measuring happiness has gained momentum in recent years, especially
after Bhutan made headlines for its focus on its Gross Happiness
Index. And while experts say determinants of happiness are similar
throughout the world, there can be culture-specific ways of
measuring it.
Dr Powdthavee said: "My personal belief is that you can't really
make inter-country comparisons because culture has an impact. What
we could do is within a given country, there is a distribution of
happiness that varies from country to country and we can find the
things that determine people's happiness in each country."
The TEDxNTU is an independently organised series of biannual talks
organised by the TED community of NTU.
- CNA/fa
