#10056. Testing Buddha: Is Acute Desire Associated with Lower Momentary Happiness?

September 2026publication date
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Social Sciences (miscellaneous);
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Abstract:
A central Buddhist claim is that having desires causes suffering. While this tenet draws from the belief that an acute desire state is more momentarily aversive than a no-desire state, the efficacy of this belief has yet to be comprehensively examined. To empirically investigate this claim, we furnished data from two experience sampling studies across USA/Canadian (N = 101; 3224 observations) and Japanese cultures (N = 237; 8497 observations). We compared states of acute desire with states of no desire regarding momentary happiness. We then tested, in an additional step, whether acute desires at greater conflict with personal goals were associated with even lower levels of momentary happiness.
Keywords:
Buddhism; Desire; Experience sampling; Momentary happiness; Temptation

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