An Experiment in Gratitude | The Science of Happiness — Transcript

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1. 0:00Participant 1: Shut up [laughs] Participant 2: What? Wait, wait.
2. 0:04Participant 3: Oh he's gonna be so embarrassed.
3. 0:06[title music]
4. 0:19Julian Huguet: What makes you happy? Having fun?
5. 0:21Hanging out with friends? Delicious food?
6. 0:25Making money? Well consider this. Psychologists have scientifically
7. 0:29proven that one of the greatest contributing factors to overall happiness in your life
8. 0:33is how much gratitude you show. Yup. Think about that.
9. 0:37Go ahead and marinate on that for a second. You can thank me later if you want.
10. 0:40It will make you feel better according to this study.
11. 0:42You go ahead and click on it and read it if you want.
12. 0:46Or, you can keep watching because we read it, we thought it might be fun to test out
13. 0:50for ourselves. We gathered a selection of volunteers to act
14. 0:53as our subjects. First we gave them a test.
15. 0:56They didn't know what we were looking for. But they gave us a pretty good idea of their
16. 0:59current level of happiness. We asked them to close their eyes and think
17. 1:02of somebody who was really influential in their life.
18. 1:05Somebody who did something really amazing or important for them.
19. 1:07We had them write down as much as they could about why this person was so important.
20. 1:11Now a lot of them thought at this point the experiment was over until we really put them
21. 1:15on the spot and tried to get them to call that person and read what they wrote about
22. 1:19them. Thank you Jessica. We are going to have to
23. 1:21have you call your mother. So who was that right person for you?
24. 1:23Participant 1: The person is my sister Erica. JH: We're gonna give Erica a call.
25. 1:26Participant 1: [laughs] Okay. JH: Who'd you end up picking?
26. 1:29Participant 3: Friend of mine, Greg Haines. Participant 4: Her name is Dora.
27. 1:31Participant 5: My college accounting instructor. JH: Really! Is this someone you're still in
28. 1:35touch with today? P 5: No I'm assuming that he is passed on.
29. 1:39JH: That's a shame. P5: To the great beyond.
30. 1:41JH: You up for it? P3: Um, uh yes.
31. 1:44JH: What would you say if we called up Dora? P4: We can try but she lives in Britain.
32. 1:50JH: In Britain? P2: I don't know her number by heart, this
33. 1:53is awful. JH: That's fine, I don't know my mom's phone
34. 1:55number by heart. P5: If it's true that those who are gone
35. 1:58on are looking down on us, maybe he'll recognize he is great.
36. 2:01[on phone]: Hi sweetheart! P2: Hey how you doing. Um you gotta second?
37. 2:07Where you at, the hotel? [phone]: I am, I'm in the hotel. You scared
38. 2:12me when you asked if I had a second, I thought something was wrong
39. 2:14P2: No I'm on this little TV show and they told me to talk about the person that influenced
40. 2:20me the most, and I picked you and they're making me call, they're making me call you.
41. 2:26[phone]: Oh wonderful! [phone dialing]
42. 2:30[voicemail]
43. 2:35[phone dialing]
44. 2:37P1: Oh come on. [phone]: Hello?
45. 2:43P1: Hi! Erica, it's me. P2: Alright so I gotta read you this paragraph,
46. 2:50can you hear me? [phone]: Yes I can. Go ahead sweetheart.
47. 2:53P2: Alright. The person that influenced me the most would be my mother, Marlow Dawson.
48. 2:59She is a single mother of two, she is a very hard-worker and dedicated to her family.
49. 3:04P3: Hey Craig, this is Lowy. Um, this is gonna be a funny little voicemail so I hope you
50. 3:11enjoy it. P4: I'm so sorry for calling you at 4 o'clock
51. 3:14in the morning! P1: I have to read this to you okay? You can't
52. 3:18say anything or I don't know. You can respond but, I probably will just keep going [laughs]
53. 3:23okay? [phone]: Is everything okay?
54. 3:25P1: Yes! But I have to read this out loud to you.
55. 3:28P5: The person who has had the biggest impact on my life, outside of Jesus Christ who is
56. 3:33responsible for my existence, was my college accounting instructor. He had a joy and enthusiasm
57. 3:41for his job like no other teacher I have ever known.
58. 3:44P2: I love her to death, and she keeps me going with positive talk, she is a woman that
59. 3:48knows what she wants and won't give up until it is achieved.
60. 3:52[phone]: Oh pumpkin, I don't know what to, I'm about to cry because that's so beautiful.
61. 3:59I have to say that's just wonderful. P3: I first met Craig on an independent feature
62. 4:06film set in Whitefish, Montana. I recently have been sending Craig a lot of positive
63. 4:10thoughts as he suffered a series of health problems. Despite his medical problems, he's
64. 4:15continued to work and take pleasure in the small things in life like sitting quietly
65. 4:19with his wife Jeanine on the porch. P1: Erica is my older sister and my best friend.
66. 4:25Sometimes it even feels like we are twins! She is my number one fan and my number one
67. 4:31supporter. She makes me happy because despite all my mistakes and my decisions, she still
68. 4:36loves me no matter what. P4: Your friendship is everything. And you
69. 4:40are one of the most important person in my life.
70. 4:44P1: Even when she has a kid and many children I will love her more than her kids! Okay,
71. 4:49maybe not. I will never forget when she flew 3000 miles at the drop of a phone call to
72. 4:53save me from a break-up. [phone]: I'm being blessed by having a son
73. 4:58like you. I love you. P3: Bye!
74. 5:06[phone]: Why did you do this to me? P1: [laughs] I don't know because they made
75. 5:10me do it! P4: Thank you for picking up, bye sweetie!
76. 5:14P1: And then they're like here you're gonna write this letter and then I wrote like this
77. 5:17whole long-ass letter which you know I don't write. And then all of a sudden they're like
78. 5:22"hey guess what you're gonna call her and you're gonna read her this letter and it was
79. 5:26like what the [expletive] [laughs].
80. 5:40JH: Before we let them go we gave our subjects
81. 5:42one more happiness test. Now we mixed up and rephrased the questions so they didn't know
82. 5:45they were taking the same test twice. For those who took the time to actually write
83. 5:49something down but couldn't make the phone call for whatever reason we saw happiness
84. 5:52increase between 2 and 4 percent. Good, but not exactly mind-blowing. Now for those who
85. 5:57actually picked up the phone and personally expressed their gratitude, we saw increases
86. 6:01between 4 and 19 percent. So either way! Expressing your gratitude will making you a happier person.
87. 6:09But you want to know something really interesting? The person who experienced the biggest jump
88. 6:14in happiness was the least happy person who walked in the door. What does that mean? That
89. 6:20means if you're having a particularly tough time, trying this out will more likely have
90. 6:24a greater impact on you. Trust me! I'm in a lab coat. In fact, while you're at it, film
91. 6:31it and upload it to us and we'll do something awesome with it. I'm Julian and this has been
92. 6:36The Science of Happiness.
93. 6:38SoulPancake Subscribe!