Make Firm Decisions to Be Happier

Want to be happy? Keeping you options open may not be your best strategy:

The Washington Post digs into the imperfect science of happiness and finds a few common "rules" that govern how we find and value it, many of them related to decisions and uncertainty. For instance, a number of experiments have shown that people tend to overestimate the consequences of events and decisions, to their detriment:

Torn between life choices? The experimental results suggest the worst option is usually indecision -- no matter what choice people make, they are more likely to be okay with the consequences than if they stay on the fence.

A study noted in the article also found that those who had to definitely choose a free item to take home with them ended up happier with their picks than those who were given the option of returning them later. Makes me think twice about some of my electronics purchasing habits.

Yeah me too...

Read all of the Washington Post's article. It's a nice summary introduction to Daniel Gilbert's happiness research.