When the Pursuit of Happiness Backfires

Maybe Will Smith isn't always for you. From Gregg Hawkins.

Today the Times of India reports that the pursuit of happiness actually makes some people depressed. This information comes from a study by June Gruber of Yale, Iris Mauss of the University of Denver, and Maya Tamir of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

These three say that problems arise when you set too many expectations for your own happiness. Gruber says, "But when you're doing it with the motivation or expectation that these things ought to make you happy, that can lead to disappointment and decreased happiness." The authors also outline some problems that happen when you really are too happy, like decreased creativity and unnecessary risk taking.

So if you read this blog or others like it and you feel disappointed when some of the suggestions don't work out for you, it may be a good idea to cut back for awhile! There's no shame in it, and you may be doing yourself a favor.

Read more about this study in Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Looking Back on Positive Memories Keeps You Feeling Happy

"The Persistence of Memory" (1931) by Salvador Dali.
From VirtualDali.

As more peaceful news starts to break through again, The Times of India reports that people who remember positive experiences are happier than those who focus on negative experiences. This information is based on a study that looked at correlations between "Big Five" personality traits and happiness.

As Ryan Howell of San Francisco State University explains, "We found that highly extraverted people are happier with their lives because they tend to hold a positive, nostalgic view of the past and are less likely to have negative thoughts and regrets. This is good news because although it may be difficult to change your personality, you may be able to alter your view of time and boost your happiness."

If you've got $31.50 burning a hole in your pocket, you can pay to read the actual study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, which is good because the news article is very light on details. How was this study conducted? How many participants were there? How were cultural differences in memory controlled for?

Who knows, but at least it's kind of normal news again, right!?

Happiness Apparently Makes You Eat Candy

From A Basket Case.

The Times of India reports that happy people tend to eat candy, while "hopeful" people eat fruit and vegetables. This comes from a series of studies by Karen Page Winterich of Pennsylvania State University and Kelly L. Haws of Texas A&M University. They got their results by having participants either thinking about the past, present, or future, then seeing whether they picked candy or fruit.

In the first study, hopeful participants ate less M&Ms than those thinking of present happiness. In the second, participants thinking of the past ate even more unhealthy snacks. In the third study, participants thought of positive emotions in the past and the future. The "future" people chose healthier food.

The study authors conclude, "So the next time you're feeling well, don't focus too much on all the good things in the past. Instead, keep that positive glow and focus on your future, especially all the good things you imagine to come. Your waistline will thank you!"

Overall, this sounds like a rather unconventional series of studies with a lot going on. The article doesn't go into much detail, but it sounds like different snacks were used in each study (M&Ms in one, unspecified candy bars in another, etc.), which could make the conclusions suspicious because of all the variables. I also hope the authors kept strict definitions of "hope," "pride," and "happiness," as these are somewhat airy concepts that participants could have defined however they wanted.

Facebook Users May Overestimate Their Friends' Happiness

None of these people are having as much fun as you think.
From The Huffington Post.

Good news for jealous people who use Facebook:  The Times of India reports that most users overestimate the positive feelings that their friends post on their profiles. These results come from Stanford University, which surveyed students about their moods and what they thought their friends were feeling. When the researchers compared the friends' actual moods, they found that students underestimate their friends' negative feelings and overestimate the positive, which in turn made respondents unhappy because they felt less normal.

As lead researcher Alex Jordan says, "People think, 'Why am I alone on a Saturday night' or, 'Why I am not in a relationship?' When people overestimate the happiness of friends, they felt more negatively about their own lives." The study revealed that the misattribution of friends' feelings happened even between people who knew each other very well.

The more students underestimated the negative emotions of their friends, the more their feelings of loneliness increased--a trend that Catalina Toma of the University of Wisconsin says can be emotionally harmful to passive Facebook users. She writes, "People naturally compare themselves to those around them, a process known as social comparison. If you perceive yourself to be doing better than your friends in an area that is important for you the social comparison will make you feel good. However, if you think your friends surpass you in an area that's important to your self-concept, you will likely feel dejected as a result of the comparison."

You can read the actual study, "Misery Has More Company Than People Think: Underestimating the Prevalence of Others’ Negative Emotions," in the January 2011 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (if you're willing to pay for it or you have a SAGE Journals Online account).

Reaching Age 50 May Make You Happier Than Ever Before

From She Knows.

Are you over the age of 50, yet feel happier than at any other period of your life? According to this story from The Times of India, you're not alone. These results come from an Engage Mutual survey of 1,500 people aged 50 or older. Forty percent of the respondents said they are happier than ever before, and 66% said they are more confident.

So why might middle-aged and older people be happier? Respondents theorized that it may be because they have paid off their mortgages, achieved some success in their careers, and felt the satisfaction of watching their children grow up and settle into adult life.

"It is heartening that so many are finding that being in your fifties can be the most rewarding time of your life," a spokesman for Engage Mutual says. "With increased life expectancy, being 50 is considered to be relatively young these days."

So what do YOU think about all of this? I find the results encouraging because they give me something to look forward to. However, according to some researchers (most notably Daniel Gilbert), people are utterly terrible at remembering past emotional states, which means these survey results may be invalid. A more accurate method that doesn't rely on memory would be to do a multi-decade study, surveying people's present emotional state over the course of many years.

This study from October, which basically came to the same conclusions with better methods, is more what I'm talking about. But the more approaches the better, I guess!