Professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia; Chief Scientist, Happy Money
Elizabeth Dunn is a professor in the Psychology Department at University of British Columbia, where she conducts original research on happiness. She serves as chief scientist for a tech start-up called Happy Money and is the co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, which presents five research-based principles to use money in happier ways and was selected by The Washington Post as one of the top 20 books every leader should read. Dunn’s work has been published in top journals and featured in media outlets including The New York Times and NPR. She has spoken at TED, TEDx, and PopTech!.
Happiness includes three key components, according to researcher Elizabeth Dunn. The first: life satisfaction. “Are you living the life you want to be living?,” she asks. Secondly, how much positive emotion are you experiencing on a day to day basis? Are you laughing and smiling? Finally, says Dunn, how much negative emotion are you experiencing? “We would never say that to be happy, you need to never experience negative emotions. Everybody experiences negative emotion.”