Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023.

We look at the one thing science says makes us happy. And the one critical skill that we (and our audiences) may be practicing this year.

How do our current feelings alter our memories of well-being? And how can you use the psychology of difficult times to find new opportunities for your business?

And don't forget we're here to help. From improving your marketing with psychology and data to making your communications more persuasive. Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll show you how we can help.

Every so often we use our Monkey Business newsletter to share useful nuggets, opinions, and findings as food for thought. Sign up here.

What is the one thing that makes us happy?

There may be lots of things we want in 2023. But what does science tell us is the one thing that will make us happy?

According to Project Director Dr. Robert Waldinger at The Harvard Study of Adult Development, it's about a personal connection to others.

"Personal connection creates mental and emotional stimulation," he explains, "and those things are automatic mood boosters, while isolation is a mood buster." 

“Humans are an intensely social species. It's literally a matter of life and death. In our ancestral past, if we suddenly became isolated and pushed out by the tribe, it would have meant our inevitable death. So, the behaviors responsible for ensuring social connection -- and therefore success in life -- would have had a strong selective pressure. They still do.”

Photo by Anna Shvets

The Importance of Ignoring in 2023

What skill should we all be adopting this year?

Well, according to this study, it’s the skill of actively ignoring.

The study explains how our online attention is often “hijacked” with “low quality and misleading information".

As a result, it suggests three “cognitive strategies” for what it calls “critical ignoring”:

• self-nudging, in which one ignores temptations by removing them from one’s digital environments; 

• lateral reading, in which one vets information by leaving the source and verifying its credibility elsewhere online; 

• and the do-not-feed-the-trolls heuristic, which advises one to not reward malicious actors with attention

Useful for ourselves, but also to be aware that our audiences, too, may well be practicing these techniques.

Photo by Val Burger

How current feelings can interfere with memories of past well-being

Analysis by Claudia Senik (Sorbonne University) and Alberto Prati from UCL and the University of Oxford) suggest how current feelings influence our memories. They analysed data from four longitudinal studies across Germany, the UK, France, and the US.

They found that “Happy people tend to overstate the improvement of their life satisfaction over time, whereas unhappy ones tend to overstate the deterioration of their level of happiness. This indicates a certain confusion between feeling happy and feeling better.

“People are able to recall how they used to feel about their life, but they also tend to mix this memory with the way they currently feel. 

“It thus seems that feeling happy today implies feeling better than yesterday,

“This recall structure has implications for motivated memory and learning and could explain why happy people are more optimistic, perceive risks to be lower, and are more open to new experiences.” 

Perhaps it also suggests ways that we can help our audiences look at things more positively.

Photo by Lisa Fotios

The Psychology of (Marketing in) Tough Times

Finally, don’t miss the recording of our recent talk on the psychology of marketing in tough times.

In it, we explore the consumer mindset – as well as the psychology of decision-making in general – and explain what this means for pricing and nudging audiences. 

We share insights into:
🧠 psychology in difficult economic times
💰 numerical cognition and price psychology
👉 actions (nudges) businesses should take

You can watch the film here. Or view the slides here.

If you’re looking for inspiration and insight for your new year plans, don’t forget our blog. You’ll find a range of psychological insights and behavioural science approaches, ready to apply to your business.

As ever, if there's anything we can help with, do get in touch.

James, Patrick and Dan

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We practically apply the science of the human mind for hard, commercial results 

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