PBS Asks: Can Americans Be Happier?

This Emotional Life, a new series to premiere on PBS on January 4, 2010, will examine the dynamics of emotion in the lives of Americans, focusing particularly on why we have such a hard time being happy, according to a PBS press release (PDF).

If it's true, as the press release states and I suspect is the case, that "millions of Americans struggle to find more meaning in their lives," this show will appeal to a wide audience. Hosted by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness, the three-part series will explore how social relationships influence human happiness, how our necessary negative emotions present obstacles to happiness and whether the pursuit of happiness is misguided in the first place.

"In the course of this series, we're going to look at the human journey toward happiness," says Gilbert in the show's trailer. "We're going to also look at the negative emotions ... where do they come from? Why do we have to experience them?"

Professor Gilbert's research focuses on why people are so bad at predicting what will make them happy, which will be a central question of the series. “Science has revealed three important facts about happiness: You can’t be happy alone; you can’t be happy all the time; you can be happier than you are. Our three shows examine each of these three facts,” he said.

The show will feature interviews with many people, including famous ones such as Larry David and John McEnroe. Here's a little preview by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love:

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