Brief Summary Of Ted Talk

Summary of TedTalk: During the Ted Talk, Dan Gilbert, explained how happiness can be found in two ways. The first being natural happiness when we actually do get what we were aiming for. While the second is synthetic happiness, where we as humans are happy even though we might not have gotten what we wanted in the first place. Gilbert has conducted two types of experiments just to prove his point that synthetic happiness is in fact a real thing. For the first experiment Gilbert had a couple paintings and told a group of people to rate them from their favorite to their least favorite and in the end Gilbert would give them one of the paintings that were in the middle. A couple of days later Gilbert would ask the same people to rate them again and the painting they owned now moved up in the scale. This being the case Gilbert explained that
When I go to the store and i'm looking at a couple shirts and only have enough money for one I end up picking one that i'm not happy with the second I leave the store. However, after about a week or so of wearing it I end up really liking the shirt and when I have enough money to go back and get the other shirt I don't end up liking it as much as I did a couple weeks before. I’ve also experienced when Gilbert was talking about how when people are left with a decision they can change they are not ever really happy about their final decision. I experienced this when I didn't have a choice on whether or not my parents split up, but in the end I am happy and i’m glad my parents are no longer together. I now realize that this is synthetic happiness because I didn’t have a choice and in the end I was still happy. In conclusion, I have and so have other people have faced synthetic and natural happiness, but don’t always realize