Would You Be Happier With a Different Personality?

Psychologists suggest there’s a sweet spot between accepting who you are and striving for who you want to be.

increases in extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were all associated with increased life satisfaction, whereas increases in neuroticism were associated with decreased life satisfaction.

.. a growing body of literature suggesting that personality changes are related to changes in life satisfaction, and that personality change can even be a better predictor of life satisfaction than many of the external variables that are normally considered in economic models of happiness.

.. people who are more positive, assertive, hard-working, calm, kind, and creative behave in ways that help promote their own happiness.

.. He argues that people should focus on developing their deepest goals, values, interests, and personal projects. These are the things that research shows give life the greatest meaning, and form a more central part of identity than lower-level cognition and perceptions.

The Men Who Gave Trump His Brutal Worldview Read more

Tutored by his fiercely ambitious father and tough-as-nails high school coach, the GOP frontrunner has only one ethical code: life is combat.

But Trump’s basic philosophy of living, instilled by his fiercely ambitious, workaholic father, enforced by the tough-as-nails coach at his military high school and honed over a lifetime of ruthless deal-making, is fairly simple and severe: Life is mainly combat; the law of the jungle rules; pretty much all that matters is winning or losing and rules are made to be broken. It is largely a materialistic worldview; even the brand of Christianity Trump was raised in was fairly materialistic, the product of pastor Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote: “Learn to pray big prayers. God will rate you according to the size of your prayers.”

.. Trump first became a public figure in the 1970s when, in response to charges of housing discrimination, his lawyer compared federal officials to the Gestapo. From this point on, Trump consistently showed he was willing to use threats, insults and deception not unlike the kinds of things he says about his political rivals today—if it meant getting what he wanted. His view of life resembled the Hobbesian nightmare of a “war of all against all” with little regard for the social contract that makes for peaceful communities and countries.

..And clearly Trump’s message is resonating with voters, which tells us something about many of our fellow Americans, and the cult of success that is part of our national lore. The candidate’s words, streamed out of his consciousness with few connecting ideas, have the effect of little electric shocks that stimulate fear and rage—invite those feelings into the open and legitimize them among his supporters, who appear to be getting bolder in their own responses.

.. But when his turn before the U.S. Senate committee investigating housing abuses came, Fred Trump admitted his manipulation of the program even as he said he saw nothing wrong in it (prefiguring some of the things his son would later say about his own practices, like political donations).
..Any suggestion that he had cheated was “very wrong, and it hurts me,”
.. In this case Trump had inflated his take from the program with tricks like renting his own equipment, such as earth movers and tile cutting machines, to himself and then charging the state many times its value. These clever strategies were so complex and involved so many corporate entities, that he struggled to recall exactly what he had done. “I’ve got forty-three corporations I’m sole stockholder in,” he explained to an investigating committee. “These things escape my mind sometimes.”
.. In exasperation, he abruptly removed his son from the family home, which was a mansion attended by servants, and handed him over to the New York Military Academy in Upstate New York. Upon arrival, twelve-year-old Donald was put into uniform and assigned a tiny cell-like room. In the days, weeks and years to come he would have to cope with an all-male culture of competition and hierarchy where physical abuse, carried out by the students and the adults who supervised them, was part of the routine.
.. At NYMA, where older boys tormented younger ones in the name of “discipline,” Trump was thrown into an aggressive and isolate subculture that prized physical toughness and defined manhood in the basest terms.
.. He [Dobias] could be a fucking prick. He absolutely would rough you up. You had to learn to survive.” Trump recalled that when he responded to an order from Dobias with a look that said, “‘Give me a fucking break,’ he came after me like you wouldn’t believe.”

Clinton’s Thinking Vs. Trump’s Feelings

In the political arena, you can usually tell System 1 candidates by asking a single question: Do they seem to love running for president? Such candidates can also be polarizing. They might appeal to the System 1 of a large part of the electorate — but turn off another large part.

.. But in its entire history, the U. S. has never had a serious System 1 candidate like Donald Trump. Much of his success lies in the automatic favorable response that he triggers, at least within a substantial part of the Republican Party. Whether or not you’re for him, he’s funny and he’s quick. When he’s hit, he hits back. He’s punishing. System 1 likes that.
.. There’s an old adage about speakers: You won’t remember what they said, but you’ll never forget how they made you feel. Trump knows that in his bones. He gives his supporters — and they are growing — a terrific feeling of safety and security, along with a laugh and a smile.
.. But System 2 candidates have serious challenges of their own. Voters like to fall in love with presidential candidates, at least a little bit. System 2 candidates need to find a way to appeal on an emotional level. George H.W. Bush did that in 1988, with his reference to “a kinder, gentler nation.”
..  But System 2 candidates beware: In politics, as in romance, System 1 can be immensely powerful.