# Bhutan, happiness and thinking about death **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 8, 2016, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534 "2016-04-08T09:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/1 "2016-04-08T09:33:24Z")
> **[Bhutan’s dark secret to happiness](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20150408-bhutans-dark-secret-to-happiness)** > > Citizens of one of the happiest countries on Earth are surprisingly comfortable contemplating a topic many prefer to avoid. Is that the key to joy? > [@](#): > > …“You need to think about death for five minutes every day,” … > > …“Rich people in the West, they have not touched dead bodies, fresh wounds, rotten things. This is a problem. This is the human condition. We have to be ready for the moment we cease to exist.”… > [@](#): > > …In a 2007 study, University of Kentucky psychologists Nathan DeWall and Roy Baumesiter divided several dozen students into two groups. One group was told to think about a painful visit to the dentist while the other group was instructed to contemplate their own death. Both groups were then asked to complete stem words, such as “jo\_”. The second group – the one that had been thinking about death – was far more likely to construct positive words, such as “joy”. This led the researchers to conclude that “death is a psychologically threatening fact, but when people contemplate it, apparently the automatic system begins to search for happy thoughts”… > [@](#): > > …Linda Leaming, author of the wonderful book A Field Guide to Happiness: What I Learned in Bhutan About Living, Loving and Waking Up¸ knows this too.“I realised thinking about death doesn’t depress me. It makes me seize the moment and see things I might not ordinarily see,” she wrote. “My best advice: go there. Think the unthinkable, the thing that scares you to think about several times a day.”… At the moment I’ve got better things to do with my life than spend a whole five minutes a day thinking about death. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/2 "2016-04-08T10:08:20Z")
There’s plenty of time for that after we die. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/3 "2016-04-08T10:38:23Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > At the moment I’ve got better things to do with my life than spend a whole five minutes a day thinking about death. Like obsessing about your diet? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/4 "2016-04-08T10:43:34Z")
No question? No debate? Just a single line of unremarkable commentary. This is just yet another blog post, posted on a discussion board, it seems to me. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/5 "2016-04-08T10:51:18Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > No question? Here it is: What do people here think of the article? > [@](#): > > No debate? Well this isn’t the GD forum… it is “Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share”. > [@](#): > > Just a single line of unremarkable commentary. This is just yet another blog post, posted on a discussion board, it seems to me. A single sentence is a blog post? Well I just put it there because I thought it needed more than a link and some quotes. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/6 "2016-04-08T11:03:42Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > No question? > > No debate? > > Just a single line of unremarkable commentary. This is just yet another blog post, posted on a discussion board, it seems to me. BTW your post seems to be unremarkable commentary on my unremarkable commentary. You could have commented on the quotes or full article. I mean didn’t any of it surprise you at all? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/7 "2016-04-08T11:24:42Z")
Are we intended to discuss how ‘you have better things to do’? Topic not worth your time, (your entire contribution amounting to simply pronouncing it so!), and you anticipate this will incline others towards a discussion? Of what exactly? Because our time should be spent on something not worth your time? Bah! At least attempt to formulate bloody questions or declare a topic to debate, otherwise these are just posts that belong on your blog, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/8 "2016-04-08T11:28:12Z")
Psychologists are crazy. There, I said it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/9 "2016-04-08T11:39:10Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Are we intended to discuss how ‘you have better things to do’? No the article and the quotes were meant to be what interested people. I assumed people would figure that out. > [@](#): > > Topic not worth your time, (your entire contribution amounting to simply pronouncing it so!), and you anticipate this will incline others towards a discussion? I think the article is interesting I just don’t plan on spending five minutes every day doing what that guy was recommended to do. > [@](#): > > Of what exactly? Because our time should be spent on something not worth your time? Talking about the article is different from thinking about death for five minutes a day. > [@](#): > > Bah! At least attempt to formulate bloody questions or declare a topic to debate, otherwise these are just posts that belong on your blog, in my opinion. Like I just said **What do people here think of the article?** So you said **questions** so I’ll make a few… > [@](#): > > …In Bhutanese culture, one is expected to think about death five times a day. That would be remarkable for any nation, but especially for one so closely equated with happiness as Bhutan. Is this secretly a land of darkness and despair?.. Does it surprise you at all that a country “best known for its innovative policy of Gross National Happiness” one is “expected to think about death five times a day”? In the 2007 study, “The second group – the one that had been thinking about death – was far more likely to construct positive words, such as “joy”” - does this surprise you at all? “My best advice: go there. Think the unthinkable, the thing that scares you to think about several times a day.” Does that surprise you at all? And these are open-ended questions… you can explain why you think the way you do rather than just give a yes/no answer. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/10 "2016-04-08T11:43:08Z")
BTW my actual opinion on the article is that it is surprising - see what I quoted. And I posted the article here due to me being surprised. People can just post their opinions on the article rather than commenting on my comments. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/11 "2016-04-08T11:56:20Z")
What does any of this have to do with methylethylmethane?:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/12 "2016-04-08T15:35:42Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > What does any of this have to do with methylethylmethane?:dubious: Drink enough of it and you won’t have to think about death (or anything else) ever again. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/13 "2016-04-08T19:27:27Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > BTW my actual opinion on the article is that it is surprising - see what I quoted. You need to figure out how to express opinions without quotes. Try posting without quoting anyone or anything off-site for the next three months. Nor quoting other threads. Any OP you create must be 100%, unadulterated you, and all followups must be you and the person you’re replying to, entirely from that thread. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/14 "2016-04-08T20:34:08Z")
**Sage Rat** I think we need some other guard rails on that. **JC** can post about things, but needs to construct the OP himself, with a link allowed for further context. Otherwise, it really will be a blog. **JC** with prompting, you got to a point where you had the entire OP, just spread across several posts. General principles for you to follow would be: what, in your own words, do you want to discuss? What are your thoughts? What is a question or idea that you want others to respond to? Remember that this is an online conversation, so we can’t see any visual cues or otherwise try to grasp your point. You must be explicit. You cannot assume that your readers will understand anything without context. Hope that helps. Now, to the OP. Yes, I am surprised that thinking about negatives, like death, makes people more likely to respond with positives when questioned. Candidly, I would be inclined to question the study. It seems to me that participants were very much led to reach this conclusion. I’d like to see a re-designed study that was more open in how participants were questioned. I tend to be more negative if I spend too much time thinking about negatives. Unless I am thinking that about ways to fix them, dwelling on the negative can make things seem overwhelming. What does seem helpful to me from the advice given, is to take time every day to be quiet (meditate, reflect) and reset your brain a bit. I did find the information provided interesting, but I question the conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/15 "2016-04-09T00:22:20Z")
Bhutan is a devoutly Buddhist country, ‘thinking about death’, there would be radically different perhaps from what you’re imagining. The remembrance of the impermanence of life is reinforced in their daily prayers, after all. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/16 "2016-04-09T02:34:12Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > …Yes, I am surprised that thinking about negatives, like death, makes people more likely to respond with positives when questioned. “One group was told to think about a painful visit to the dentist while the other group was instructed to contemplate their own death” “The second group – the one that had been thinking about death – was **far more likely** to construct positive words, such as “joy”.” Both groups had been thinking about negatives. I wonder why the groups had different reponses… is it that death is more negative and that causes people to be more positive? I wonder if the second group thought about being tortured for a week whether they would also be “far more likely to construct positive words”? > [@](#): > > Candidly, I would be inclined to question the study. It seems to me that participants were very much led to reach this conclusion. I’d like to see a re-designed study that was more open in how participants were questioned… It said “Both groups were then asked to complete stem words, such as “jo\_”.” It doesn’t sound biassed to me… I mean I don’t see a subconscious association between death and the word “joy”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/17 "2016-04-09T02:51:17Z")
That seems like a really stupid study. There aren’t many words in people’s everyday vocabulary that start with “jo-,” and while “joy” is pretty positive, I don’t think many of the others are unambiguously positive or negative. “Job” might be a fulfilling career that pays cash (positive), or a thankless drudgery (negative) “joke” might be funny (positive), or a mean-spirited practical joke (negative). “join” might be off-putting to an introvert. “jodhpur” and “jojoba” are even more difficult to measure. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/18 "2016-04-09T03:15:51Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > That seems like a really stupid study. There aren’t many words in people’s everyday vocabulary that start with “jo-,” and while “joy” is pretty positive, I don’t think many of the others are unambiguously positive or negative… “jo\_” was just one example - others were used. From Terror to Joy - Automatic Tuning to Positive Affective Information Following Mortality Salience [http://pss.sagepub.com/content/18/11/984](http://pss.sagepub.com/content/18/11/984) There were 3 different experiments involved but I can’t see the full text for free. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/19 "2016-04-09T04:13:38Z")
I immediately thought “job” (and no at the moment, not an especially positive association) and when i asked my husband, his answer was the same (but he just started a new one, and it’s a more positive association for him). ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534/20 "2016-04-11T01:48:36Z")
Well, I clicked on this thread because just yesterday, I was looking up some tidbits regarding the history of Bangladesh, and sidetracked on Bhutan. I admit, I wasn’t sure I had even heard of it before (geography is not my strongest suit…). So, that’s about it. I do know exactly where Bhutan is, now. 😕 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bhutan-happiness-and-thinking-about-death/751534.md?page=2)