Immune To Reality Daniel Gilbert Analysis

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Happiness for Sale! Is happiness for sale? It is true that with enough money one can enjoy everything luxurious, and live a life of comfort and security. A little more money make us a little happier. However, happiness involves more than financial fitness; it encompasses emotional fulfillment as well, thus there are various ways to pursue happiness. In “Immune to Reality”, Daniel Gilbert examines the operation of the “psychological immune system,” which protects us when we suffer wrenching setbacks but not when we try to cope with minor ones, imparting a surprising complacency in the face of significant blows but often leaving us quite helpless when we deal with trivial irritations. In the course of a detailed investigation of the food industry,
This ameliorates the impact of unpleasant events and reduces the possibility of getting a mood disorder, diminishing the consumption of drugs. Gilbert explores some experience—failed marriages and lost jobs for example—that is able to trigger psychological defenses and shift the blame onto somebody else so as to make people feel better. “When experiences make us feel sufficiently unhappy, the psychological immune system cooks facts and shifts blame in order to offer us a more positive view” (Gilbert 136). The phrase “cook facts” means playing around with facts and fabricating evidence. Gilbert points out that it is not that case that the psychological defense is triggered whenever people have a sense of depression, resentment, vexation, or dissatisfaction; in other words, the psychological immune system falsifies facts for the purpose of delighting people only when there are large-scale assaults on their happiness. Likewise, Watters mentions that corporations utilize marketing strategies in order to alter and manipulate consumers’ attitude towards depression. Kirmayer’s presentation conveys that “cultural beliefs about depression and the self are malleable and responsive to messages that can be exported from one culture to another.” (Watters 519). With the expansion of cultural exchanges in the world, how people consider
Within the threshold of intensity, consumers tend to purchase more and more as the sweetness of products intensifies. The sensory intensity of sweetness which falls short of the critical point fails to trigger the defensive system. Therefore, consumers are only aware of the enhanced taste of products but neglect the tiny change of sweetness, leading to an increase in purchasing products. When the intensity exceeds the threshold, consumers are able to unconsciously cook facts with the help of their triggered psychological immune systems. Both the internal psychological immune system and the external cultural exchanges are secretly cooking facts and shaping people’s consciousness, ameliorating the impact of unpleasant events and contributing to a drop in drug consumption. The reason why people are able to generate a positive view on unpleasant events is that they come up with explanations. Since people can find justifications for their feelings of severe despondency, they prettify and prize depression and do not take it seriously, leading to a decline in drug

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