An article in the LA Times discusses how high levels of stress change hormonal balances in the body causing, ahem, sexual arousal during times of stress.
I can easily imagine a similar effect for just plain happiness. Fabio On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Robin Hanson wrote: > The Washington Post had two interesting articles yesterday about the > recent disaster changed public opinion, on happiness and on trust. > > On happiness, when asked last weekend to rate the overall quality of > their lives on a seven point scale, more than 44% picked the highest > rating. In June that was 30%, and in December 1999 it was 31%. This > seems to me to be an enormous problem for those who want to measure > economic policies by how much they increase reported happiness. Was > this disaster good for the nation because it made people happier?! > > On trust, when asked Sept 25-27, 64% of Americans now trust the > federal government nearly always or most of the time to do what is > right, more than double the percentage who said so in April 2000, and > the highest it has been for three decades. If we interpret this to > be a factual estimate by those questioned, rather than a statement > of values, this seems very hard to square with rationality. What > evidence of federal behavior in the last two weeks could possibly > be the basis for this huge change in opinion? The big info has to > be that the disaster was allowed to occur, and most federal action > since then has been a promises to do useful things, rather than > doing anything demonstrably useful. This seems to me a clear case > of wishful thinking, where people believe what they want to be true. > > > Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu > Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University > MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 > 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323 >
