The Science of Happiness

You might be surprised to know that the Smiley Face is nearly 50 years old.1 You might also be surprised to find out that there is a science of happiness. Scientists measure happiness much the way your eye doctor fits you for glasses. ”Which is better – A or B?”

The most recent issue of the Harvard Business review (January – February 2012) featured several articles on research related to happiness. Some of the findings were not surprising. Harvard psychology professor, Daniel Gilbert (author of Stumbling on Happiness), affirmed that, “People who participate in their churches are happier than those who don’t.” But there were some other findings that were more intriguing:

- We are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for – The research found that we are effective at harmonizing the negative events in our lives. We tend to find good things on the other side of negative events that we could not have know existed prior to the negative event. We’re not good at predicting what will make us happy and how long that happiness will last but “…very few experiences affect us for more than three months.”

- It’s the frequency, not the intensity, of positive experiences has a greater impact on our happiness – We focus on the big events in our lives – a vacation, promotion or award. Yet the accumulation of the research found that “…the frequency of your positive experiences is a much better predictor of your happiness than is the intensity of your positive experiences.” Our daily contribution to others, praying, walking, playing, exercising, listening to music, creating, eating together are all activities that have a greater overall impact on our happiness than a single major positive event.

- Your relationships are the greatest single predictor of your happiness – Your relationships are critical to your happiness. In one study the correlation was .71 (the correlation between smoking and cancer is .37). One researcher noted, “If I had to summarize all the scientific literature on the causes of human happiness in one word, that word would be ‘social’. If I wanted to predict your happiness, and I could know only one thing about you, I wouldn’t want to know your gender, religion, health, or income. I’d want to know about your social network – about your friends and family and the strength of your bonds with them.”

Here are four steps you can take to increase your happiness:

1) Nurture your relationships: As Jesus, himself, said, there is nothing more important that our relationships with God and each other (Matthew 22:37-40).
2) Serve others: Per one research project, “…even more important to sustained happiness and engagement was the amount of social support the students provided.”
3) Enjoy your everyday experiences: Every day really is a gift and everyday experiences can be a blessing.
4) Be thankful: The happiest people are not necessarily the ones that have the most but the ones who are most thankful for what they do have.

What are you grateful for today?

1 The Smiley Face was invented in 1963 and the licensing fees exceeded $50M by 1970.
2 To participate in an ongoing research project, download the “Track Your Happiness” app. http://www.trackyourhappiness.org/