{"product_id":"9780008756413_the-opposite-of-happiness","title":"The Opposite of Happiness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'When you finish, you'll know yourself better, you'll understand the people you care about better'\u003c\/strong\u003e ANGELA DUCKWORTH, author of \u003cem\u003eGrit\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Teeming with wisdom, insight, empathy, and sparkle. One of the best books I have ever read' \u003c\/strong\u003eCASS R. SUSNSTEIN, co-author of \u003cem\u003eNoise\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA founding father of behavioural economics reveals the hidden logic of negative emotions with a clarity and humour that make our worst feelings strangely easier to bear.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eEvery age has its illusions. Ours is that happiness is the natural human condition. Behavioural economist George Loewenstein argues the opposite: that our lives are inextricably shaped by the darker emotions we spend so much time trying to avoid.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Opposite of Happiness,\u003c\/em\u003e he draws on decades of influential research—as well as insights from literature and from his own life experiences—to offer a tour de force reexamination of the role negative emotions play in our lives: why pain is stickier than pleasure, how the modern world makes bad feelings worse, and why our attempts to escape misery usually only sharpen its sting. Those who struggle to find and sustain happiness are not unlucky or flawed, he argues, but merely human, suffering the slings and arrows of an inherently negative nature. This knowledge comes, however, not as a bitter pill but as much-needed solace for anyone navigating the frustrations and heartbreaks of modern life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this fascinating deconstruction of negative emotions and their behavioral consequences, Loewenstein explains how features of our mind, like memory, attention, and self-esteem, conspire to keep us down. He reveals the downside of supposedly uplifting feelings like hope, and untangles misery’s intertwined forms: guilt and shame, jealousy and envy, loneliness and depression, impatience, boredom, and regret. Drawing from a first-of-its-kind Misery Survey, Loewenstein shares participants’ stories about, and insights into, the diversity of negative emotions that collectively weigh us down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProviding a provocative and refreshing counter argument to the self-help industry, \u003cem\u003eThe Opposite of Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e shares a sobering, deeply human, and ultimately comforting truth: The sooner we understand our negative natures, the sooner we will stop feeling guilty about failing to achieve lasting bliss, and the better connected we will be to others who share the same, or their own unique mix of, negative emotions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"George Loewenstein","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47222702080149,"sku":"9780008756413","price":34.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/x750_0bffa03d-2e6b-40a9-b8a7-813a624bfda2.jpg?v=1776889924","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008756413_the-opposite-of-happiness","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}