The Enemies of Gratitude

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Science, Arts, Social Sciences, Performing Arts

4.6 • 39.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the mysteries of human behavior is that it’s often easier for us to focus on what’s going wrong than on what’s going right in our lives. Why is that? Psychologist Thomas Gilovich studies the barriers that prevent us from feeling gratitude, and how we can overcome them.

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta.
0:03.0	If you make at least $30,000 a year,
0:06.0	congratulations.
0:08.0	Your income is 10 times the global median
0:11.0	and in the top 5% of incomes worldwide.
0:15.1	If you are older than 35, congratulations.
0:19.1	For much of human history, many people died before they were 30.
0:23.0	If you have a job and stable income,
0:26.0	live in a democratic country,
0:28.0	and have a college degree,
0:29.0	you are in a rarefied group
0:31.0	in the history of humankind. If you enjoy good health, good friends, nice
0:36.3	vacations, you really ought to get down on your knees yet? Why is it even when our lives are objectively better than the lives of most people who ever live.
0:54.0	We are all prone to seeing the clouds, not the silver lining.
0:58.5	This is true not just when it comes to global and historical statistics, but in our daily lives.
1:04.1	We notice small delays at the airport, but ignore the miracle that we can literally fly across
1:09.0	the world.
1:10.7	We take our health for granted and only notice the gifts of our limbs and our senses when they are taken away from us.
1:17.0	We zero in on annoyances in personal relationships and rarely pause to acknowledge what is wonderful about our friends,
1:25.6	families and coworkers.
1:31.6	Our ungratitude for our good fortune is so automatic and ubiquitous that it seems
1:37.4	obvious they must be an underlying psychology to it. That's the topic of today's show, the enemies of gratitude and how to
	...

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