Benjamin Wallace: Does happiness have a price tag?
In his talk, the journalist Benjamin Wallace discusses his quest to discover whether life’s more expensive luxuries bring greater satisfaction. He decides to sample the most expensive items in a number of categories – from jeans to coffee beans. I noticed that during each experience, Wallace kept an objective outlook, no matter how outrageous the prices appeared. I enjoyed how Wallace set up his argument using logos, having it based solely on experience rather than abstract theory. I was fascinated by the study that Wallace mentions at the end, where people were given the same wine with different price tags. Through MRI brain imaging, researchers proved that not only were the subjects saying that the more “expensive” wine tasted better, but their brains were more stimulated as they drank the sample with the higher price tag.
Wallace’s lecture is definitely worth watching, because his unbiased and factual analysis encourages us to consider why humans are constantly searching for something better.
Here’s the link:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_wallace_on_the_price_of_happiness.html
