Happiness is Contagious?

[deleted3782]

According to the NYT:

“Your happiness depends not just on your choices and actions, but also on the choices and actions of people you don’t even know who are one, two and three degrees removed from you,” said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, to be published Friday in BMJ, a British journal. “There’s kind of an emotional quiet riot that occurs and takes on a life of its own, that people themselves may be unaware of. Emotions have a collective existence — they are not just an individual phenomenon.”

In fact, said his co-author, James H. Fowler, an associate professor of political science at University of California, San Diego, their research found that “if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket.”

Read more here.

Considering this, how many people would be more deliberate about who they hang out with? Should you dump your sad friends if they are bringing you down with them? Is a successful life strategy to surround yourself with only happy people?

 

[vince]

Does this explain why the Germans are generally grumpy and unhappy? :smile:

 

[deleted3782]

Does this explain why the Germans are generally grumpy and unhappy? :smile:

Yup, and why the Smurfs are all so damned happy.

 

[D_dollar a week]

Was somebody watching Kathie Lee today? :smile:

 

[deleted3782]

Was somebody watching Kathie Lee today? :smile:

I wish I got to stay home and watch TV...though I have yet to watch Hoda and Kathy Lee...I would be sitting around knitting tea cozies and planning festive seasonal dinner menus by the end of that day. :tongue:

 

[ZOS23xy]

the action of not wanting anything, nor owing anyone anything.

 

[invisibleman]

According to the NYT:

“Your happiness depends not just on your choices and actions, but also on the choices and actions of people you don’t even know who are one, two and three degrees removed from you,” said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, to be published Friday in BMJ, a British journal. “There’s kind of an emotional quiet riot that occurs and takes on a life of its own, that people themselves may be unaware of. Emotions have a collective existence — they are not just an individual phenomenon.”

In fact, said his co-author, James H. Fowler, an associate professor of political science at University of California, San Diego, their research found that “if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket.”

Read more here.

Considering this, how many people would be more deliberate about who they hang out with? Should you dump your sad friends if they are bringing you down with them? Is a successful life strategy to surround yourself with only happy people?

That makes sense. I need to hang around some happy successful people more.

 

[jeff black]

I am a genuinely happy person most of the time, and people seem to like that about me.

 

[Nala]

I don't get it, why would those sad friends still be sad while they're supposed to become happy when you're happy? Isn't it supposed to work both ways?

 

[Flashy]

Yup, and why the Smurfs are all so damned happy.

the smurfs are not truly happy.

they are all on drugs, obviously, and they live in a perpetual psychedelic haze, the results of eating and living in mushrooms.

also, many smurfs are not in fact happy, most have had their dreams, hobbies and projects crushed by the unfairness of life and the hopelessness of existence in the Smurf Village, some are problematic, obnoxious, paranoid, incompetent, selfish and some are downright miserable creatures such as:

Architect Smurf
Brainy Smurf
Grouchy Smurf
Greedy Smurf
Dabbler Smurf
Doctor Smurf
Dopey Smurf
Dreamy Smurf
Enamored Smurf
Finance Smurf
Nosy Smurf
Harmony Smurf
Reporter Smurf
Scaredy Smurf
Sloppy Smurf
Snappy Smurf
Sneezy Smurf
Stinky Smurf
Sweepy Smurf
Vanity Smurf
Weakling Smurf
Weepy Smurf
Tuffy Smurf


The Smurfs are a wretched, unfulfilled lot of dysfunction, misery, sadness and unfulfilled dreams, crushed by a crypto-fascist existence, into a blue nothingness.

count yourself fortunate not to be a smurf.

 

[Not_Punny]

According to the NYT:

“Your happiness depends not just on your choices and actions, but also on the choices and actions of people you don’t even know who are one, two and three degrees removed from you,” said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, to be published Friday in BMJ, a British journal. “There’s kind of an emotional quiet riot that occurs and takes on a life of its own, that people themselves may be unaware of. Emotions have a collective existence — they are not just an individual phenomenon.”

Just as I always suspected. Happiness is a disease that must be exterminated!

- - - - -

All kidding aside, it's an interesting article. And as more and more people lose their jobs and homes, we are truly in for a happiness famine.

 

[got_lost]

I'm pretty happy!
I can't think of any sad friends at the mo!

I certainly think it's contagious!

If someone miserable is in the room, it can bring everyone down!
If someone's smiling, the world smiles with them! :smile:

 

[B_Nick8]

It brings me down thinking that you're spending time sitting around contemplating ridiculously pseudo-existential questions like this. :wink: It's so unlike you. It's so--Oh, I get it. Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake is all.

 

[whatireallywant]

I think maybe instead of dumping your sad friends, maybe you should work to try to help your sad friends become happy? (I mean "you" in the general sense here, not in a personal sense).