Study: “Unhappiness Just Part of UChicago Experience,” UChi Secrets Most Successful Experiment Yet

By Angela Wang

Feb. 24, 2013

Almost nine and a half years ago, a number of the greatest UChicago minds came together for the “first, and probably only, series of interdisciplinary applied research experiments ever done at the University of Chicago.” Researchers and theorists including, but not limited to, Steven Levitt, John List, Alan Sanderson, Boaz Keysar, Noam Chomsky, Barack Obama, Susan Goldin-Meadow, and Paul Sally met in Hutchinson Commons under the glow of candlelight. This week the results of that study was revealed. The group’s finding suggests that happiness at the University of Chicago is indeed only created from unhappiness. In other words, their experiment found that UChicago students are happy to be unhappy.

With their combined mental forces, the team came up with a number of experiments to be implemented on students and staff over the next decade to deduce dynamics of the widespread unhappiness. It is now known that the DRL, UChi Secrets, Overheard at UChicago and SCRS are all creations of the study. Each tool seemed to provide different aspects of evidence for the happiness-of-unhappiness theory. The DRL tested the masochistic-reward decision making framework found in most students; UChi Secrets revealed a deep joy in sharing embarrassing truths; the SCRS did counseling and stuff.

Overheard at UChicago, the largest virtual community on campus, showcased a wide variety of unhappiness habits. According to John List, “These kids seem to have a really odd idea of fun and funny. The like-comment ratio on depressing items is five times higher than on posts about things traditionally considered happy.” “Overheard at UChicago” gave the researchers insight to the bathroom stall writings, failed attempts at sex jokes or sexual advances, and abundance of philosopher puns in everyday life, but it wasn’t until “UChicago Secrets” that the researchers hit the goldmine.

“We didn’t know if high complaint tendencies and unhappiness were due to attendance at UChicago, or simply a strong correlation, but using panel data to compare before-afters of each UChicago student and the other Secrets groups, we have a pretty good idea,” noted Steven Levitt. Levitt continued, “students here just like—they love—to complain. Whereas other college students may derive pleasure from sexual expeditions, or an intensely connected social network, UChicago students derive pleasure from their unhappiness.”

Students seem to agree.”The University and student organizations really try to help us, cheer us up, offer us resources, and bring Turquoise Jeep to campus, but in the end, I feel relief overwhelm me every time I’ve been up for 37 hours and I take a sip of coffee. I feel pleasure when I complain and say ‘it’s not my job’ to fix a situation. Heck, I even procrastinate on purpose, looking at the joy of my non-UChicago Facebook ‘friends’ so that I can complain about my workload later.” Another added, “where would we be without our misery and self-demeaning jokes?” Barack Obama asserted, specifically to the case of these studies, “the children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st-century happiness economy. Not this time.”