Comments on: Happiness and the Ideological Mediation of Adaptation

By: vouchers

vouchers — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:36:48 +0000

So to call moral judgements about status “just a reflection of a particular personality type” might have the causation reversed. Perhaps the “personality type” (system of preferences, in this case) is an outcome of moral beliefs. Or perhaps they arise together (seems plausible).

By: promotional codes

promotional codes — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:27:07 +0000

mainly because 'personality' if taken to mean enduring consistency in patterns of behavior, has simply not been found to exist empirically, thanks!

By: Andrew Norton » Blog Archive » Status, left and right

Andrew Norton » Blog Archive » Status, left and right — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:03:48 +0000

[...] Hat tip: Will Wilkinson. [...]

By: James

James — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:36:07 +0000

Good point “guest”!

By: Heretic-Monkey » links for 2007-06-14

Heretic-Monkey » links for 2007-06-14 — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:03:26 +0000

[...] Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle » Blog Archive » Happiness and the Ideological Mediation of Adapta… (tags: economics happiness politics psychology sociology research toread) This entry was written by admin and posted on June 13, 2007 at 7:50 pm and is filed under LinkDump. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. [...]

By: Dave Babbitt

Dave Babbitt — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:28:00 +0000

This reminds me of a proverb:

Honor goes to kind and gracious women,
mere money to cruel men.
(TLB Pro 11:16)

or:

A gracious woman attains honor,
And ruthless men attain riches.
(Nasb Pro 11:16)

By: Bruce K. Britton

Bruce K. Britton — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:52 +0000

‘Personality’ traits have no place in this discussion, not only because they are not part of the NBER paper, but mainly because ‘personality’ if taken to mean enduring consistency in patterns of behavior, has simply not been found to exist empirically. That is, when we look at individual persons, we find inconsistency across situations, framing effects so large as to swamp any notion of consistency, and nothing there. This annoys people because they think they have a consistent personality, but, sorry, they don’t.

By: Rabbit’s blog :: Esquerda-Direita

Rabbit’s blog :: Esquerda-Direita — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:56:43 +0000

[...] (via Fly Bottle) [...]

By: Anne 2.1 » links for 2007-06-10

Anne 2.1 » links for 2007-06-10 — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:20:53 +0000

[...] Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle » Blog Archive » Happiness and the Ideological Mediation of Adapta… Fascinating. (tags: economics happiness research politics status money) [...]

By: Crooked Timber » » Happiness, income and status

Crooked Timber » » Happiness, income and status — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 10:39:32 +0000

[...] of people (including Kevin Drum, Brad DeLong and Tyler Cowen have jumped in on this post by Will Wilkinson about this NBER study of habituation to changes in income and status. Wilkinson and most [...]

By: LP

LP — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:03:28 +0000

If it’s true that “our intuitions about real and hypothetical cases are probably already deeply infected with our ideological notions–or with the personality traits that lead us to find those notions attractive,” then how do we hold off the creeping anomie of postmodernism? Isn’t this just what they (the pomos) have been claiming all along? Especially this line: “It doesn’t settle the dispute: it explains why we’re having it.”

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:54:13 +0000

Huh? (huh?)

By: mk

mk — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:39:15 +0000

George: I hear you. I am confused when I look back at the original post. (It doesn’t help the discussion that I wrote my response at 4 in the morning)

It seems like first, Will says that moral intuitions are the result of “personality”…

It’s pretty amusing if this is just a reflection of a particular personality type.

Next, Will seems to say that “happiness-effects” are the result of moral intuitions…

More generally, the fact that the happiness-effects of various things seem to be mediated by ideological leanings..

So this seems to paint the picture:

Personality -> Moral intuitions -> happiness-effects.

I am not sure how to distinguish “personality” from “happiness-effects”. In my first response I was conflating the two, but now I’m not sure what’s going on.

If I don’t habituate to something good, that means I am happier. If I tend not to habituate to a certain kind of good thing, that seems to be a statement about my personality… ??!

If I do not tend to habituate to status, is that a statement about my personality?

By: Independent George

Independent George — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:22:41 +0000

I’d love to join this discussion, but, honestly, I’m even more confused than ever.

By: guest

guest — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:50:59 +0000

Isn’t status (income) a zero-sum (positive-sum) quantity? Regardless of its importance to specific people, a general improvement of status (income) seems to be a contradiction in terms (obviously desirable).