Smiling can improve mental health and boost happiness, but experts at a recent conference were split on whether it must be genuine or not. Psychologists frequently counsel depressed patients to “fake it until you make it”, meaning act happy until one genuinely feels happy. However, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson disagrees. Speaking at a recent Positive Psychology conference…
Researchers have identified a “Happiness Gene” responsible for a persistent elevation in a patient’s baseline level of happiness over time, regardless of life circumstances. The gene slows the reuptake of serotonin much the same way some antidepressant drugs do. In the paper Genes, Economics and Happiness, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of Harvard Business School reported that the…
A study recently presented at the Association for Psychological Science annual convention revealed some interesting findings about emotional smells. Apparently the closer that partners are to each other, the more they are able to actually smell the partner’s emotions. Denise Chen, a psychologist with Rice University in Houston, Texas led the study that worked with…
A recent survey commissioned by the automaker, Skoda, revealed that 60% of the people surveyed were happier when driving because they could be alone. Many listened to music while others preferred to use the solitude to think about different things. In today’s highly connected world, many people have lost the ability to commune with themselves…
One of the challenges for positive psychology is pinning down the concept of happiness. We all think we know what happiness is when we see it, but in order to study happiness and its achievement systematically, psychologists need to be able to define happiness and understand what characteristics mark happy individuals in order to make…
Americans reported that their lives were better in 2010 than before the economic meltdown in September 2008. In fact, life satisfaction was higher than at any time since Gallup and Healthways started to track it. This new information illustrates the concept that a recession can be, well, depressing to a lot of people. The findings…
Psychologists have long known there was an association between performing acts of kindness and being happy. Although the correlation was clear, the relationship of cause and effect was less clear: Does performing acts of kindness make you happy, or are happy people more likely to be kind? In addition, English researchers conducting a recent study…
Leaders in the field of positive psychology have found several simple strategies that increase happiness including volunteering, smiling, laughter and gratitude. Simply volunteering on a regular basis can increase happiness as much as getting a college degree or increasing income by 100 percent. Regularly attending a social club, worth services or even entertaining produced the…
The happiness of the average person varies from country to country, and the variations can be both extreme and surprising. Recent research published in the the Journal of Happiness Studies suggests that good government contributes to the happiness of its citizens. The new study takes up questions that were raised recently by a report of the Organization…
Although fast food and soft drinks increase chances of children becoming obese, children who consume less of these known causes of obesity are more likely to be unhappy, according to results of a study conducted by researchers at National Taiwan University and the University of Arkansas. The researchers note that although many studies have addressed…