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happiness
Your mood depends entirely on what you track.
Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are currently thinking about it.
The focusing illusion explains why people overestimate the impact of specific factors, like climate or income, on their overall happiness. By fixating on one variable, the brain ignores the thousands of others that contribute to daily satisfaction.
You are currently overestimating the importance of your focus.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Schkade and Kahneman, 1998
- What the check found
- The quote is an accurate summary of the focusing illusion established in the 1998 Schkade and Kahneman study, though it is a later restatement of the concept rather than a direct quote from that text.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.