IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/minsoc/v15y2016i2d10.1007_s11299-015-0180-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The meaning of happiness: attention and time perception

Author

Listed:
  • Viviana Giovinazzo

    (Università di Milano Bicocca)

  • Marco Novarese

    (Università del Piemonte Orientale)

Abstract

This paper experimentally studies the relationship between happiness, attention and time perception. The experimental results challenge the prevailing results in the economic and psychological literature. A Go/No-Go test reveals a clear negative correlation between happiness and attention: the subject who is happier is also more inattentive, probably because of his or her state of lightheartedness, a state of mind that seems to negatively affect performance. Furthermore, the fact that happier subjects evaluate the passage of time with different objective and subjective measures opens up paths of further research in assessing a new feature of happiness.

Suggested Citation

  • Viviana Giovinazzo & Marco Novarese, 2016. "The meaning of happiness: attention and time perception," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 15(2), pages 207-218, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:minsoc:v:15:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11299-015-0180-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11299-015-0180-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11299-015-0180-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11299-015-0180-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oecd, 2011. "Country review: Ukraine," OECD Journal: Competition Law and Policy, OECD Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 153-222.
    2. Scitovsky, Tibor, 1992. "The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195073478.
    3. Vicki Freedman & Frederick Conrad & Jennifer Cornman & Norbert Schwarz & Frank Stafford, 2014. "Does Time Fly When You are Having Fun? A Day Reconstruction Method Analysis," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 639-655, June.
    4. Ruut Veenhoven, 1994. "Is happiness a trait?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 101-160, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Samuel Cameron & Mark Fox, 2011. "Half Full or Half Empty: The Economics of Work–Life Balance," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. SCHUMACHER, Ingmar & ZOU, Benteng, 2006. "Habit in pollution. A challenge for intergenerational equity," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2006006, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    3. Van Landeghem, Bert & Vandeplas, Anneleen, 2018. "The relationship between status and happiness: Evidence from the caste system in rural India," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 62-71.
    4. Irena Kogan & Jing Shen & Manuel Siegert, 2018. "What Makes a Satisfied Immigrant? Host-Country Characteristics and Immigrants’ Life Satisfaction in Eighteen European Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1783-1809, August.
    5. Bernhard Christoph, 2010. "The Relation Between Life Satisfaction and the Material Situation: A Re-Evaluation Using Alternative Measures," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 98(3), pages 475-499, September.
    6. Silvia Maja Melzer & Ruud J. Muffels, 2012. "Migrant's Pursuit of Happiness: The Impact of Adaption, Social Comparison and Relative Deprivation; Evidence from a 'Natural' Experiment," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 448, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. Ruut Veenhoven, 2011. "World Database of Happiness Example of a focused ‘Findings Archive’," RatSWD Working Papers 169, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    8. Falkenberg, Andreas W., 1998. "Quality of life: Efficiency, equity and freedom in the United States and Scandinavia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-27.
    9. Senakpon F. A. Dedehouanou & Johan Swinnen & Miet Maertens, 2013. "Does Contracting Make Farmers Happy? Evidence from Senegal," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59, pages 138-160, October.
    10. Sergio Nisticò, 2021. "Some notes on Gossen’s “submerged and forgotten” approach to consumption and time," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 635-653, July.
    11. Mitch Gainer, 2013. "Assessing Happiness Inequality in the Welfare State: Self-Reported Happiness and the Rawlsian Difference Principle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 453-464, November.
    12. Ahrens, Steffen & Snower, Dennis J., 2014. "Envy, guilt, and the Phillips curve," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 69-84.
    13. de la Croix, David, 1998. "Growth and the relativity of satisfaction," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 105-125, September.
    14. Astrid Körner & Rainer Silbereisen & Uwe Cantner, 2014. "Work-Related Demands Emanating from Social Change and Their Relation to Trait-Like and Occasion-Specific Aspects of Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 203-222, January.
    15. Nisticò, Sergio, 2013. "The Demand for Cultural Activities: a Time-Use Approach," MPRA Paper 51377, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Hrazdil, Karel & Li, Xin & Suwanyangyuan, Nattavut, 2022. "CEO happiness and forecasting," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    17. Marina Bianchi, 2018. "Tibor Scitovsky as behavioral economist," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 2(1), pages 39-43, March.
    18. Bianchi, Marina, 2002. "Collecting in a Consumer Society: Russell W. Belk; Routledge, London and New York, 1995, first paperback edition 2001, pp. 198; ISBN 041510534X Hardback ([UK pound]60.00), 0415258480 Paperback ([UK po," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 426-428, June.
    19. John F. Helliwell & Aneta Bonikowska & Hugh Shiplett, 2016. "Migration as a Test of the Happiness Set Point Hypothesis: Evidence from Immigration to Canada," NBER Working Papers 22601, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Francesco Ferrante, 2009. "Education, Aspirations and Life Satisfaction," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 542-562, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Happiness; Attention; Time perception; Go/No-Go test; Anxiety;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General
    • B50 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - General
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:minsoc:v:15:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11299-015-0180-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.