The Happiness Hypothesis

Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

By: Jonathan Haidt

Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation shows how a deeper understanding of the world’s philosophical wisdom can enrich and transform our lives.

“Wonderfully smart and readable.” —Washington Post

In The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt skillfully combines philosophical wisdom and scientific research to explore ten “Great Ideas” that have been discovered by several of the world’s civilizations. In each chapter, Haidt questions a Great Idea in light of what we now know, and extracts from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives, thereby illuminating the causes of human flourishing.

Now with a new preface, The Happiness Hypothesis expertly unravels the world’s philosophical wisdom and its enduring maxims—such as “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” and “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”—and tackles the eternal question “How can I live a meaningful life?”

Critic reviews

"The Happiness Hypothesis is a wonderful and nuanced book that provides deep insight into the some of the most important questions in life -- Why are we here? What kind of life should we lead? What paths lead to happiness? From the ancient philosophers to cutting edge scientists, Haidt weaves a tapestry of the best and the brightest. His highly original work on elevation and awe -- two long-neglected emotions -- adds a new weave to that tapestry. A truly inspiring book."—David M. Buss, author of The Evolution of Desire

"In this beautifully written book, Jonathan Haidt shows us the deep connection that exists between cutting-edge psychological research and the wisdom of the ancients. It is inspiring to see how much modern psychology informs life's most central and persistent questions."—Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice

"In our quest for happiness, we must find a balance between modern science and ancient wisdom, between East and West, and between 'left brain' and 'right brain.' Haidt has struck that balance perfectly, and in doing so has given us the most brilliant and lucid analysis of virtue and well-being in the entire literature of positive psychology. For the reader who seeks to understand happiness, my advice is: Begin with Haidt."—Martin E.P. Seligman, Director, Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Authentic Happiness

"Haidt is a fine guide on this journey between past and present, discussing the current complexities of psychological theory with clarity and humor. . . Haidt's is an open-minded, robust look at philosophy, psychological fact and spiritual mystery, of scientific rationalism and the unknowable ephemeral -- an honest inquiry that concludes that the best life is, perhaps, one lived in the balance of opposites." —Bookpage

The origins of "The Righteous Mind"

I first read Haidt's "The Righteous Mind" and so this book goes over much of what he goes into further detail in that book. Given this, I think this book is likely an easier beginning to the ideas more developed in "The Righteous Mind." Overall fascinating ideas, and it's exciting to see the current and ongoing development(s) between science and religion. This book is a taster of Haidt and other moral psychological insights, and then his later book is a home run, in a sense. After reading both this and his other book I no longer really viewed things in what I now perceive to be a weird 'religious' vs. 'secular' mindset. I now think of almost all human group activity in a wider range, so that any radical group behavior, secular or religious, takes on the term 'fundamentalist' or 'radical,' among other useful ways of viewing the problems and limits in any perspective (and specifically the very heated US political Republican vs. Democrat positions). I now find myself in a spot in which I am pretty moderate with a libertarian flare, without agreeing fully with a lot of various policy issues (more so thinking that living personally in a libertarian manner promotes more self-respect and choice, but understanding that many libertarian policies may in actuality just be bad... this gets into Haidt's great distinction between useful and often correct personal intuitions in interpersonal relations but that on the scale of policy trusting intuitions is often terrible and has bad results).

In short: read or listen to this book and Haidt's following book, "The Righteous Mind," and (hopefully) expand your mind and worldview a bit further beyond limited partisanship and tribalism.

Thorough and easy to follow concepts

Very insightful and well presented ..definitely increased my awareness of links between ideologies I once considered in isolation

Narration is imperative

While I am enjoying the concepts of this book, the narration is awful. He’s articulate and very easy to understand, however the cadence of the narration becomes almost monotone. Think of it like this: “Ta da duh da duh da, ta da duh da duh dee; Ta da duh da duh da, Ta da duh da duh do. And so on and so on and so on. It helped to speed it up a tad but it’s still hard to listen to more than an hour at a time. I’m halfway done and so far the content is interesting. Does anyone do test narration and present it to a panel for consideration beforehand?

really happy with this book, very well written

overall extremely happy with this book, few rough areas but great with a subject matter like this it's expected. highly recommend!

‏‏great book from a great writer

this writer understand many aspects social science combines it which recent studies in psychology and his own unique understanding morality so it gives us a very nice touch on old questions