Another Study Finds That Happiness Depends on Life Goals and Choices

What I imagine Melbourne University
looks like. From BUGBOG.

Hi! Sorry for the slow news day, folks, but today the only story seems to be this one from Australia's The Age. On weekdays I'm a slave to the news, so here it is! A new study by Bruce Heady of Melbourne University found that around 40% of people experience large fluctuations in happiness over their lifetime. These results may seem obvious, but the study is notable for being so large:  the researchers looked at 60,000 Germans over 25 years.

Altruistic and relationship-oriented goals were found to be the best at creating happiness, while materialistic goals created the most unhappiness. Some say that these results go against Sonja Lyubomirsky's findings that 40% of our happiness can be changed (with 50% determined by genetics and 10% determined by circumstances like economic status). The article doesn't go into much detail about just how much the respondents' happiness changed.

I don't have much more to say about this story, so how was your weekend? Me, I didn't do much, but it's finally raining in California! It's been so long. Also check out this Falling Sand Game. You might have seen it already, but at least it's something to do on a slow day.