Sept. 19: SCIENCE PUB – Wired to Acquire: Why Having Isn’t Happy. Our wildly popular Science Pub Series returns for a 12th incredible season! Enjoy lectures on scientific topics of general interest in our Arizona Room over fine craft beer and award-winning pub cuisine. The room opens at 5:00 PM. Avoid disappointment and come down early for dinner and a pint before the presentation which begins at 7:00 PM.

This month’s lecture is presented by Dr. Jason Childs, Associate Professor, Department of Economics at the University of Regina. Most disciplines concerned with human behaviour focus on possession of material goods as a key motivation for behaviour and thus a central element of happiness.  Yet, studies of happiness consistently show that wealth is only weakly related to happiness, and the effect declines as wealth increases.  It is likely that fault lies not with our stars or our culture, but with our genes.  The brain's reward circuit responds not to possession, but to acquisition.  This has dramatic implications not only for economic theory, but the range of potentially stable social structures as well.