12. Happiness is Contagious In taxis, there is strong emotional contagion between the driver and the passenger… Unhappy drivers create unhappy passengers…unhappy passengers create unhappy drivers
Story: immigrant, been here for 5 years, worked as taxi driver for 3 years. At liquor store before that. Difficulties: He does not seem very enthusiastic about his job. Works 14 hour shifts. Owns the car but works as a “Yellow Cab” for the permit and reputation. He does not like waiting at the Sheraton. He says that night time is better because there are less cabs. Almost every night he will drive home drunk people. He says that it is the worse part because sometime they do not give him any address to drive to, or they pass out, or they throw up. If this happens, he has to call the cops. He needs to get paid for cleaning up the car, so sometimes if the customer is too drunk, the police will help him get the money from the drunk passengerWhy was he doing this? Meaning - Money: He is more focused on the money and sees things in terms of money. He says it is better than his previous job because he can make better money. Our impression is that he is there to make money and because he can set his own scheduleThe first thing he said when I came up to him is that life in America is hard because everything is expensive A good day for him is when he makes a lot of money (5 big rides = $500). .Free time - transitory:iPhone - He has an iPhone. Used it to play games and for entertainment during his free timeOverall, he did not seem to be very happy or pleased with his job. While waiting, he reads a document about US citizenship or plays poker with other taxicab drivers (although we did not observe this)
Story: Faizal is Somalian. Lives the same life as kamal and exactly the same tough job.Different approach to lifeHe approached us by calling us over to interview him instead of another cab driver we were talking to. When I tried to shake hands with him, he would not touch my hand because he is praying. Our conversation with him was dramatically different. We asked similar questions about “what is a good day for you? What do you like? Etc.” What did he enjoy? Meaning in PeopleFaizal shifted the focus of our conversation from money to people. The stories the cab drivers told him, the incidents he lived, the friends he madeSomething for societyWhen we asked him if he feels like he is doing a service? He says yes, “if it weren’t for me, who would drive the drunk people?” Music - Singing - He loves to sing and performed a Somalian song for us. He also sings this to his friends. Sometimes he will sing to his friends over conference call in the car. Free time - connectednessWhen we asked him if he felt bored waiting in the car for an hour (to get a passenger), he said no! “I have so many friends to talk to, I can spend 15 hours just talking to all my friends. I have many friends all over America. I have many rich friends who know so much about finance and do so many things for others (this is in reference to customers who become friends).” Faizal reads ‘the best book ‘ in the world that “tells me how to go to heaven” about his religion. He is connected at all times with a strong Somalian community all over the country via iPhone and free conferencing services. There is a sense of purpose, religion, and connected community that makes him happier than Kamal.
Hatfield E, Cacioppo JT, Rapson RL. Emotional contagion. NewYork: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Fowler, JH. and Christakis, NA Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the FraminghamHeart Study. BMJ, 2008: 337
