Do you smile? =)

Happiness, But Not Sadness, Catches On

In an interesting article published yesterday, we noted a new study of 5,000 people that looked at their emotional states over 20 years.
The researchers found that while happiness may spread through a person’s social network of friends, neighbors and family (”contagious” may be too strong a word, since the effect is not really like a virus), sadness did not.
Using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Index (a standard metric) that study participants completed, the researchers found that when an individual becomes happy, a friend living within a mile experiences a 25 percent increased chance of becoming happy. A co-resident spouse experiences an 8 percent increased chance, siblings living within one mile have a 14 percent increased chance, and for next door neighbors, 34 percent.
But the real surprise came with indirect relationships. Again, while an individual becoming happy increases his friend’s chances, a friend of that friend experiences a nearly 10 percent chance of increased happiness, and a friend of that friend has a 5.6 percent increased chance—a three-degree cascade. […]
They also found that, contrary to what your parents taught you, popularity does lead to happiness. People in the center of their network clusters are the most likely people to become happy, odds that increase to the extent that the people surrounding them also have lots of friends. However, becoming happy does not help migrate a person from the network fringe to the center. Happiness spreads through the network without altering its structure.
This is a fascinating finding and would be interesting to see it replicated in modern times, and to our online social networks. Could a 2nd level online network connection experience greater levels of happiness because of your own happiness?
Since connections online are so less physically-based than our face-to-face connections, a characteristic the current study found important, it suggests that these findings may not replicate as robustly online.
Another interesting part of the study was how the researchers found the data — through handwritten administrative tracking sheets dating back to 1971 from the Framingham Heart Study that had previously been locked away.


This article really interests me. I have always wondered about the effect on people being happy versus people being sad on those around them. This article was perfect. The overall positive correlation between how happy one person is and how happy people around them are is a very good thing. I believe that people should always try to put a smile on their face because happiness does seem to be contagious, so to speak. Even in the most frustrating or sad situations, who can resist their best friends smile?
One of the most interesting parts of this article, is how they used data from 1971 in order to further prove their theories and conclusions. That study provided a key time frame that helped them maintain creditability. To be able to take that information, that has been locked away, and use it to further prove your own theory, is impressive. I really enjoyed learning about this, and maybe it will help my friends smile a bit more! =D