Can Individuals Be Happy In An Unhappy Time?

Moderated by Warren Olney, Host, KCRW’s “To the Point”

The pursuit of happiness is foundational to the United States, and happiness has become an international obsession as nations seek to measure happiness and enact policies to increase it. But this is also an era of disruption, dislocation, and great unhappiness; in the U.S., half of all adults suffer from anxiety, according to some estimates. Are the meanings and measures of happiness changing as the world is transformed by the digital revolution, climate change, and populist politics? Which factors—from job satisfaction and free time to wealth, personality, and the quality of our relationships—have the biggest impact on our happiness? And what strategies allow us to find happiness even in the midst of uncertainty, conflict, and unwanted change? UCLA Anderson School of Management marketing scholar Cassie Mogilner Holmes, Harvard Business School behavioral economist and co-author of Happy Money Michael I. Norton, and Sonja Lyubomirsky, UC Riverside social psychologist and author of The How of Happiness, visit Zócalo to discuss how people can find happiness in difficult times.