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The meaning of happiness: attention and time perception

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Università di Milano Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Viviana Di Giovinazzo

  2. AL.EX - Digspes, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Via Cavour 84, 15121, Alessandria, Italy

    Marco Novarese

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  1. Viviana Di Giovinazzo
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  2. Marco Novarese
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Correspondence to Marco Novarese.

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Di Giovinazzo, V., Novarese, M. The meaning of happiness: attention and time perception. Mind Soc 15, 207–218 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-015-0180-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-015-0180-1

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