No.06
Back into the room, we say, “Hi, we’re back.” The patients, bless them, say, “Ah, Doc, I’m sorry, I’ve got a memory problem; that’s why I’m here. If I’ve met you before, I don’t remember.” “Really, you don’t remember? I was just here with the Monet prints?” “Sorry, Doc, I just don’t have a clue.” “No problem, Jim. All I want you to do is rank these for me from the one you like the most to the one you like the least.”
What do they do? Well, let’s first check and make sure they’re really amnesiac. We ask these amnesiac patients to tell us which one they own, which one they chose last time, which one is theirs. And what we find is amnesiac patients just guess. These are normal controls, where if I did this with you, all of you would know which print you chose. But if I do this with amnesiac patients, they don’t have a clue. They can’t pick their print out of a lineup.
Here’s what normal controls do: they synthesize happiness. Right? This is the change in liking score, the change from the first time they ranked to the second time they ranked. Normal controls show — that was the magic I showed you; now I’m showing it to you in graphical form — “The one I own is better than I thought. The one I didn’t own, the one I left behind, is not as good as I thought.” Amnesiacs do exactly the same thing. Think about this result.
These people like better the one they own, but they don’t know they own it. “Yeah, right” is not the right response! What these people did when they synthesized happiness is they really, truly changed their affective, hedonic, aesthetic reactions to that poster. They’re not just saying it because they own it, because they don’t know they own it.
Now, when psychologists show you bars, you know that they are showing you averages of lots of people. And yet, all of us have this psychological immune system, this capacity to synthesize happiness, but some of us do this trick better than others. And some situations allow anybody to do it more effectively than other situations do. It turns out that freedom — the ability to make up your mind and change your mind — is the friend of natural happiness, because it allows you to choose among all those delicious futures and find the one that you would most enjoy. But freedom to choose, to change and make up your mind, is the enemy of synthetic happiness.
ボキャブラリー
clue: n. 手がかり、糸口、きっかけ；ヒント
make sure: 確かめる、確認する、手配する、気をつける
amnesiac: a., n. 記憶喪失症の（人）
guess: vt. 〜ということを推測する、推量する；〜と思う；言い当てる
normal: a. 普通の、通常の；正常な、標準の
out of: [ある数]の中から、〜から
lineup: n. ラインアップ、打順、構成、顔ぶれ、人員構成、出場メンバー
liking: n. 好くこと、好み、趣味、嗜好
score: n. 点数、スコア、成績、得点
graphical: a. = graphic 図式的な、図形の、グラフの
leave behind: 〜を置き去りにする、忘れてくる
affective: a. 感情の
hedonic: a. 快楽の
aesthetic: a. 美の、美学の
poster: n. ポスター、張り紙、広告ビラ
average: n. 平均（値）、標準、並
immune system: 免疫システム、免疫機構、免疫系
capacity: n. 能力、性質、資格、知的能力
trick: n. 芸当、技、ごまかし、たくらみ；いたずら、悪ふざけ
allow A to do: Aに〜するのを許す、許可する；Aが〜できるようにする
situation: n. 事態、情勢、状況、立場、境地
effectively: adv. 効果的に、有効に
turn out: 結局〜ということが分かる、結局〜になる、〜の結果になる
make up one’s mind: 決心する
delicious: a. 実に美味しい、非常に美味な；実に楽しい〔愉快な、快い〕
future: n. 未来、将来、今後、先行き