Bewildered

It is hard for me to understand most people, and I frequently get into trouble because my reactions to various problems doesn't seem to fit people's expectations. It is difficult for me to understand other people, though, due to the vast gulf that seems to separate how they see the world and how I see the world.

There are times when the reality of this yawning chasm in opinion seems very real to me. This is one of those times.

A study was done recently on happiness and satisfaction with life. The questions asked were general questions about job satisfaction, daily stresses, and how much time a person spends worrying. Nestled in the list of relatively unexciting questions, however, was this little gem:

"Still on the topic of happiness, if there was a legally available drug that could be bought over the counter, that made you feel happy and did not have any side effects, do you think that there would be occasions when you would take it? Would you say, 'Yes, definitely,' 'Yes, probably,' 'No, probably not,' or 'No, definitely not'?"

My immediate response to this question when I read it was to laugh. Of course there would be occasions when I would take such a drug! How on Earth could you find people who wouldn't be enthusiastic about being happy more often than they are? I mean, even the most upbeat people I know have days when they are down or just sort of neutral. Who wouldn't want to take a few of those 'blah' grey days and make them into a veritable birthday party in their heads?

If I were to make predictions about how the breakdown of people sampled would answer that question, I would have guessed something like as follows:

Yes, definitely: 75%
Yes, probably: 15%
No, probably not: 7.5%
No, definitely not: 2.5%

I would tend to expect a direct linear relationship between the data, where an overwhelming majority of people would want to have such a drug available to them at some point in their lives, and very few people who would not ever want such a drug that would make them happy with no adverse consequence.

Somehow, humanity has once again surprised and baffled me. The actual results were as follows:

Yes, definitely: 12%
Yes, probably: 14%
No, probably not: 19%
No, definitely not: 53%
(I left off the percentage of 'don't know' responses)

So I was right about there being a linear progression from one end of the spectrum to the other, but my estimate was exactly reversed. Indeed, whereas I suggested that only 2.5% of people would disagree vehemently with the use of such a drug, in actuality I was off by a whole heapin' lot. The real answer was more than 2100% of my estimate.

I have to admit that I really don't understand how other people think. What in the world could they possibly find wrong with free happiness? I just don't know.