The secrets of happiness: evolutionary foundations of our hedonic system - Professor Lionel Page

Abstract

The neural and psychological processes that govern pleasure and reward in humans have been forged by evolution to help us make not just good decisions, but the best decisions possible. Integrating insights from psychology, economics, and evolutionary science, I will argue that our hedonic system is designed to incentivise us to integrate all available information to identify the best courses of action and to aim for them. This perspective explains key aspects of our hedonic system that have been seen as puzzling: why we have hedonic rewards for proximate outcomes and not simply for ultimate outcomes, why hedonic rewards are a function of our outcomes relative to a reference point, why failing to reach this reference point is more painful than reaching it is satisfying (loss aversion), and why this reference point is influenced by our peers' achievements.

Bio

Lionel Page is the Director of the Behaviour and Economic Science Cluster at the University of Queensland. He is a behavioural economist who has published extensively in the different areas of this discipline including on decisions under risk, time preferences, social preferences, and strategic thinking. He has published more than 50 scientific papers, and his research has been discussed in leading media such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times, Guardian and The Australian. Holding a Ph.D. in Economics from Pantheon-Sorbonne University Paris 1, he is interested in understanding how people make decisions, alone or in groups. His research links insights from economic theory (theory of decision and game theory) and from other behavioural sciences such as psychology.