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Happiness And Biology

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Happiness is a positive mental or emotional state stemming from biology as well as outside circumstances. Often, people believe that by achieving certain levels of success and wealth, their happiness levels will rise, but that is not the case. Since many factors influencing one’s happiness lie in biology, it is largely predetermined. Happiness is just as influenced by biology as it is by external factors. When one thinks of happiness, his or her mind gravitates towards ideas of opulence and wealth in such a manner that is not conducive to the actualities of happiness. These societal ideals that are so evident today are largely influenced by the capitalistic nature of society. The commercial aspects of our society are reliant on this unending …show more content…

cite Haidt go into more depth For example, if one wins the lottery, they return to their previous levels of happiness as they were previously a year later. Why is that? It is simple. People have a set baseline of happiness, which is biologically determined, so that regardless of seemingly good-fortunes, they will return to their previous level of happiness. This fact of nature is “determined largely by genes” (Haidt 86). This states that the baseline of happiness is genetic in its heritability. The heritability of this was proven through twin studies in the 1990s where twins who were separated at birth with different “childhood environments” still had similar personalities (90). This internal setting of happiness cannot be changed through environmental …show more content…

The brain is a phenomenon of “physical structures” and “neurological connections” that carry out different processes (Dowd 147). The four parts of the brain in order of the time they were developed are reptilian, paleo-mammalian, neo-mammalian, and the prefrontal cortex, all of which explain people’s dysfunctional features. People’s brains are not matched to the society that they live in today, which is expressed in certain aspects of human life i.e. sex, drugs, and food. Evolution doesn’t happen fast enough to match with how fast society is progressing. The brain is set up for a time that is not as advanced as society, so when it comes to vices, or things that make one feel well, people flock to them. This leads to infidelity, addiction, and unhealthy weights (148). The reason I am mentioning this here is because in the same way that the brain cannot control it’s desires to acquire these things to the point of detriment, it also cannot control happiness unless artificially. People want these vices because they produce chemicals in the brain that lead to a feeling of happiness, which proves that this process of happiness lies in biology and brain

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