Be Happy - But Not Too Happy

A study by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Southern California published in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2008 found that although women start life happier than men, they experience more difficulty in achieving their goals and end up less happy as a result.

Anke Plagnol and Richard Easterlin's study is said to be the first to use nationally representative long-term data to examine the role of lack of fulfilment in a person's sense of well-being. Researchers explain that expectations of success may vary between generations and demographic characteristics alter over time. Controlling for relevant factors such as race and education, they found that women are, on average, happier than men in early adulthood but after the age of 48 the position is reversed especially in relation to family and finances.

Anke Plagnol said:

"Men come closer to fulfilling their aspirations, are more satisfied with their family lives and financial situations, and are the happier of the two."

The study found that 90 per cent of men and women aspire to a happy marriage.

Anke Plagnol commented:

"Differences between men and women in aspirations for marriage and children are fairly small. Gender differences in satisfaction depend largely on attainment."

Researchers found that the least happy period of the average man's life was his twenties when he was most likely to be single. Young men are also more dissatisfied with their financial situations, not because they are worse off, but because they want more. Those in a relationship also tend to be in a stronger financial position than those who must depend solely on their own resources.

After the age of 34, men are more likely to be married than women, and the happiness gap widens with age, mirroring men's growing satisfaction with family life. Men also become more satisfied with their financial situations over time, as reflected in their increased spending power. Researchers found that men tend to covet expensive items that might not be affordable until later in life, such as a car or vacation home. However, women want more "nice clothes" than men. These findings are consistent with an earlier study by Richard Easterlin showing that recent generations are less satisfied than previous generations, despite having more.

Anke Plagnol said:

"Of course, one doesn't have to be married to be happy, but if that's something you really want - and it is for most people - then the failure to attain it can have an impact on your overall happiness."

Some age milestones:

· 41: Age at which men's financial satisfaction exceeds women's financial satisfaction

· 48: Age at which men's overall happiness exceeds women's overall happiness

· 64: Age at which men's satisfaction with family life exceeds women's satisfaction

A study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science in 2007/8 argued that the pursuit of happiness can be taken to extremes and that moderate levels may be preferable to elation. Researchers from the University of Virginia, the University of Illinois and Michigan State University analyzed data from the World Values Survey of economic, social, political and religious influences and studied the behaviors and attitudes of 193 Illinois undergraduate students.

Researchers explain that many indicators of success and well-being (such as relationships, employment, health and longevity) are correlated with greater happiness with some studies suggesting that it is causal rather than consequent. However, their findings challenge the common assumption that all positive measures increase along with happiness. Individuals classifying themselves as most happy (10 on a 10-point life satisfaction scale) were in some respects worse off than those scoring slightly less.

Ed Diener, professor of psychology at Illinois said:

"Happy people are more likely (than unhappy people) to get married, are more likely to stay married, are more likely to think their marriage is good. They're more likely to volunteer. They're more likely to be rated highly by their supervisor and they're more likely to make more money."

"But there is a caveat, and that is to say: 'Do you then have to be happier and happier? How happy is happy enough?"

Researchers hypothesized that mildly happy people (classifying themselves as 8 and 9 on a 10-point scale) may be more successful in some respects than those who consider themselves at the top of the scale. Profoundly happy people may be less inclined to alter their behavior or adjust to external changes even when flexibility would be advantageous. Data from the World Values Survey supported that prediction.

The authors said:

"The highest levels of income, education and political participation were reported not by the most satisfied individuals (10 on the 10-point scale) but by moderately satisfied individuals (8 or 9 on the 10-point scale)."

The study found that the most satisfied individuals earned significantly less, had lower educational achievements and were less politically engaged than the moderately satisfied. However the most satisfied individuals were more successful socially, engaging more often as volunteers and maintaining more stable relationships.

Why is Laughter Contagious?

Why does one person pick up another's emotions so easily? It seems that human emotions are highly contagious. For example, one person's laughter is soon shared by another's. The explanation is that strong emotions synchronize the brain activity of different individuals according to research by Finland's Aalto University and Turku PET Centre research published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.

Seeing emotional expressions such as smiles and laughter in someone else often triggers a corresponding emotional response in the watcher. This may be a basic element of social interaction: synchronizing a common emotional state in all members of a group whose brains process what they see of the environment around them in a similar fashion.

The Finnish researchers measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants were looking at short pleasant, neutral and unpleasant movies. The researchers found that strong and unpleasant emotions synchronized participants brains’ emotion processing networks in the frontal and midline regions while highly arousing movies synchronized activity in brain networks supporting vision, attention and sense of touch.

According to Adjunct Professor Lauri Nummenma from Aalto University:

"Sharing others’ emotional states provides the observers a somatosensory and neural framework that facilitates understanding others’ intentions and actions and allows to ‘tune in’ or ‘sync’ with them. Such automatic tuning facilitates social interaction and group processes.

"The results have major implications for current neural models of human emotions and group behaviour, but also deepen our understanding of mental disorders involving abnormal socioemotional processing.

Contagious Laughter

The new study can be compared with one by researchers at University College (UCL) and Imperial College London published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2007 showed a possible mechanism for contagious laughter. Positive sounds like laughter trigger a response in the area of the listener's brain activated when we smile, as though preparing facial muscles to laugh.

In an example given in the media release:

"Cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew's description of Ian Botham's freak dismissal, falling over his own stumps 'he couldn't quite get his leg over' was all it took to send himself and the late Brian Johnston into paroxysms of laughter."

Dr Sophie Scott, senior research fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience said:

"It seems that it's absolutely true that 'laugh and the whole world laughs with you'. We've known for some time now that when we are talking to someone, we often mirror their behaviour, copying the words they use and mimicking their gestures. Now we've shown that the same appears to apply to laughter, too - at least at the level of the brain."

Researchers played volunteers various sounds while measuring brain responses using an MRI scanner. Some sounds were positive, for example laughter or triumph. Others were unpleasant, such as screaming or retching. All triggered a response in the premotor cortical region of the brain, which prepares facial muscles to respond accordingly. However, the response was greater for positive sounds, suggesting that these were more contagious than negative examples. The researchers believe this explains why we respond to laughter or cheering with an involuntary smile.

Sophie Scott commented:

"We usually encounter positive emotions, such as laughter or cheering, in group situations, whether watching a comedy programme with family or a football game with friends. This response in the brain, automatically priming us to smile or laugh, provides a way of mirroring the behaviour of others, something which helps us interact socially. It could play an important role in building strong bonds between individuals in a group."