Spreading as we speak: Happiness, the virus!
A study published Friday found we're all susceptible to the
happiness bug.
A communicable disease of joy spread through close contact with
friends, family, neighbors -- even strangers.
"Happiness is like a stampede," the study's co-author said.
"Whether you're happy or not depends not just on your own actions
... but on those of people you don't even know."
Could it be the idea of smiling at the cranky customer and making
her day is more than simple bumper sticker pabulum?
According to the study? Yes!
Researchers followed more than 5,000 people in Massachusetts as
part of a 20-year heart study and found that, when it comes to
making you feel good, hanging out with happy people is better than
money. I read the study. Happiness was measured weekly, tabulated by
responses to four statements: I felt happy about the future. I was
hopeful. I enjoyed life. I felt I was just as good as other people.
Like a positive swab for Influenza Type B, four yeses and you were
down with happiness. Find two happy friends and call me in the
morning. It's true: Happy friends make you happy. Happy friends of
the same sex make you even happier. Having a happy friend is better
than having a happy spouse (17 percent better!). And your chance of
becoming happy rises 15.3 percent if a friend or family member is
happy, and almost 10 percent if friends of your friend or family
member is happy. Happy yet? I am! But I have to wonder: What about
the effect of being around those Too Happy People? Was there a
backlash to the annoyingly optimistic? A blip in the data for the
glass-half-full- when-the-tornado-is-pullingyour-toilet-out-of-the-
basement people? The people who find silver linings in ice storms,
famines, downsizing?
Did they factor out the impact of the Have a Nice Day! Folks?
I didn't see it in the fine print.
But I did discover happiness is catching and, like the bird flu,
we can pick it up in the oddest ways.
Finding happiness is like playing Six Degrees of Separation. But
instead of all of us knowing someone who knows someone who knows
someone who knows Kevin Bacon, we get happy by osmosis.
My friend making me happy also makes a friend of mine who doesn't
know the original friend happy, too. And that friend makes a friend
of hers happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. Why? Don't ask! Researchers
don't know. It might be similar to the correlations made between,
say, smoking and obesity. Hang around with smokers and chubby folks
and you're more likely to light up and chow down. According to the
Happiness Report, a happy next-door neighbor can make me happy,
although not a neighbor on the other side of the block. My spouse
can make me happy, but only if we are living under the same roof
(distance apparently doesn't make the heart happier).
A sibling can make me happy as long as he lives less than a mile
away. (Think your co-workers make you happy? Think again.)
Popularity is good. The more friends you have -- and the closer
they live to you -- the happier you are. (Communal living, anyone?)
And transferred happiness has a longer shelf life than a can of
tuna fish, as much as a year.
So what's not to be happy about?
Perhaps this: Commentary posted on the British Medical
Journal'sWeb site -- the magazine that published the findings --
cautioned against being overly optimistic about the results of the
study.
"We must not expect all the details of their findings to be
confirmed in subsequent work," wrote Peter Sainsbury.
"Don't drop your unhappy friends yet."
Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or
clangekubick@journalstar.com.
ON THE WEB
To read the entire happiness study and related articles go to
www.bmj.com
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