Don’t Worry, Be Happy...It’s Not in My Genes!

Eternally happy people get on my nerves (but then again, the perpetually morose ones who spout doom and gloom do too.) We all know someone like this. The sky could be falling and they would see a silver lining. You run into them on Monday morning, all chirpy...annoying. 

It does take all types to make the world go ‘round as people say. Diversity, here, like in most things, is a good thing. Most of use fall in between the aforementioned two extremes.

Maybe she’s born with it -Maybelline

Studies have shown that money can buy happiness up to a point, but after that no one is happier than the next middle class/ rich guy. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, a Professor at the University of California at Riverside, only 10% of happiness is due to external factors, such as amount of money. That leaves 90%. Lyubomirsky says that 50% is due to genetics, while the remaining 40% is under our control...through actions and thoughts. 

As for 50% of happiness being genetic, I can see that. Some people have to work at pretending to be happy, because by nature, they are not. I am firmly convinced people are born with certain personalities and dispositions. I have 4 kids, not one of them is alike. They all have distinct personalities. What if there is an actual gene for happiness!?

Controversial research has shown a relationship between happiness and the mutation of a gene that controls serotonin (remember our happiness chemical?) Some studies have found that people with a shorter (mutated) copy of this gene report lower happiness levels. For example, the researchers looked at people in 30 countries and compared how many people had the mutation in each country. They found that Denmark and the Netherlands have the lowest percentage of people with the mutated shorter copy of the gene, and also ranked the “happiest”. Italy, with the highest percentage of people with the mutation, ranked the least happy of the 30 countries.

So basically, 60% of our happiness is out of our control. What about the remaining 40%...things that we supposedly can control: our thoughts and actions. There are many articles, in print and on the web that suggest there are things to do and ways to modify your thoughts, etc. to have a happier life. For example, see "8 Life-Changing Lessons From TED Talks on How to Be Happy."

1. Here's some of what the TED speakers advise:

   1. Don't expect happiness to be one-size-fits-all. ...
   2. Stop chasing things like success, fame, and money. ...
   3. Keep challenging yourself. ...
   4. Be generous. ...
   5. Be grateful. ...
   6. Train your mind. ...
   7. Smile! ...
   8. Tell the truth.

Also, happier people tend to be healthier and live longer. A review of more than 160 studies of human and animal subjects has found evidence that, with all else being equal, happy people/animals tend to live longer and experience better health than their unhappy peers. (Diener & Chan, 2011) We can’t control our genes and shouldn’t let other stuff that we cannot control bother us. So we should take a more proactive approach to lead to happier lives. Find your bliss.

Check out this amusing info graphic. Check out the happiness benchmarks for all 50 states!

Sources

Diener, E., & Chan, M. Y. (2011) Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health 

         and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and 

 Well-Being. 3(1), 1-43.

Oswald A.J. & Proto E. (2014). National Happiness and Genetic Distance: A Cautious Exploration. 

        IZA DP No.   8300. 

Do You Want To Play A Game? Math, Game Theory and Evolutionary Biology

“Why do I need to learn this?” This question is often heard by teachers from students since the beginning of schooling. From math to biology, they just do not see the importance of these disciplines on their real lives or future lives. “Education provides humanity with a means to share previous knowledge with future generation through discovery and interactions.  Teachers provide the very thread that sustains and enhance our very existence.” (Fairbank, 2010) Teachers supply the link from content/theory to application. For example, I had twin brothers that took two of my science classes since I was hired. One was an artist and into gaming, and the other was into game development. I took this knowledge of interests and made whatever I was teaching relevant to them (they are now starting their first year at the Art Institute of Tucson.

For my master’s in biology I had to take a course in mathematical modeling, but it was taught by my ecology mentor and thesis professor. It was made interesting because we studied how we could use mathematical modeling in studying population and evolutionary biology. We learned the history of Game Theory, the mathematicians and, later, biologists who further applied it to their studies. 

We studied John Maynard Smith and his books (see reference section below) were our textbooks. John Maynard Smith (1920-2004) was one of the most influential evolutionary biologists in recent history. He studied under J. B. S. Haldane, also a well-renowned biologist.

Smith, along with George R. Price (1922-1975), another population geneticist, introduced the concept of evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS), which was the cornerstone in game theory. In ESS a player’s complete algorithm for playing a game (i.e. strategy, which are any of the options a player can choose in a setting where the outcome depends not only on his own actions but also on the actions of others), which tells a player what to do for all possible situations during the game.

This lead us to apply Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT), to our research. EGT is the application of game theory to evolving populations of lifeforms in biology. It is useful for defining a framework of contests and analytical strategies into which Darwinian competition can be modeled. 

So let’s get to know our students. Teach them what they need to know but make it relevant to them.

Interest in Game Theory piqued? Recent thoughts on games and evolutionary game theory can be found here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book-ch06.pdf

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book-ch07.pdf

http://ess.nbb.cornell.edu/ess.html

References

Easley, David and Kleinberg, Jon. 2010. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press, chapters 6 and 7.

Fairbank, Mark. 2010. Answering the Essential Student Question: Why Do We Need to Learn This?                        Homeroom: The official blog of the U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from 

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2011/01/answering-the-essential-student-question-why-do-we-need-to-learn-this/

Maynard Smith, J., 1974 Models in Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Maynard Smith, J., 1978 The Evolution of Sex. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Maynard Smith, J., 1982 Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Maynard Smith, J., 1989 Evolutionary Genetics. Oxford University Press, Oxford.