Question: What made you want to research happiness?

Stephen Baillargeon answered on 11 Jun 2018:

When I was in college, I realized that my own life was basically as perfect as anyone can expect. No deaths of loved ones, plenty of friends, a lovely family, I was well respected by people around me, but I still wasn’t fully happy. This baffled me. I felt like I was just spoiled. So many of my friends had been abused, lost their parents, or suffered other tragedies, and here I was with the perfect life, unable to fully appreciate it. I wasn’t depressed, but I felt like that’s what happiness should be. So I studied happiness and learned that it just doesn’t work the way I thought it did. I think most people believe some myths about happiness, and figuring it out has been amazing for me. I’ve always appreciated my life, but now I live it very happily. I studied happiness because I wanted to figure out how to be happy.