Why we love reading about lottery winners

CBC News interviewed UBC psychology professor Elizabeth Dunn for an article on our interest in lottery winner.

Dunn’s research has found that the human mind enjoys exploring potential futures rather than living in the present.

“What’s pretty clear from happiness research is that thinking about winning the lottery is likely to make people happier,” Dunn said. “That’s actually very, very engaging to the human mind, and, I think, to a large extent it explains why we’re attracted to stories about the lottery, but also why we play the lottery in the first place.”