![]() ![]() On the other hand, there is some evidence that individuals mis-predict what will make them better off in the future. On the one hand, while these studies cannot reveal how long the behavioral changes last, they are, at the very least suggestive of a virtuous circle. 3 The driving channel in both these cases-as well as in other experiments-seems to be the provision of new hope. soup kitchens to recall a time they felt positive about themselves, which in turn resulted in more effort in playing simple games compared to those who did not receive the optimism prompt. One such study is based on the provision of simple assets-such as a cow or other livestock-to poor people in developing countries, and find it results in increased labor and other investments. Some more recent experimental studies, which are based on simple interventions that evoke optimism, find significant changes in behavior. 1 Since then, several studies using a range of metrics, from twin and sibling comparisons to lab experiments, have confirmed such a channel, finding again that happy people have better outcomes in a range of areas from the health to the labor market to the social arena. In some very early work on this topic, one of us (Graham, Eggers, and Sukhtankar 2004) found that higher levels of residual happiness-e.g., the happiness of each individual that was not explained by observable socioeconomic and demographic traits-in an initial period was correlated with higher levels of income and better health in future periods. ![]() Several studies in the literature on the economics of well-being support the first hypothesis. ![]()
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