The First Happiness Genes Have Been Discovered

Study may also offer key insights into depressio

Study may also offer key insights into depression.

A massive study including hundreds of thousands of people has discovered the genetic variants which (partly) determine our happiness.

Dr Alexis Frazier-Wood, one of the study’s authors, said:

“We report that we found three genetic variants associated with subjective well-being – how happy a person thinks or feels about his or her life.

We also found two genes harboring variants associated with depressive symptoms and 11 genes where variation was associated with neuroticism.”

The study involved analysing data from many other studies.

The meta-analysis pooled data from 298,000 people.

Of course the genes themselves do not totally control how happy we feel.

Dr. Daniel Benjamin, one of the study’s authors, explained:

“Genetics is only one factor that influences these psychological traits [including happiness].

The environment is at least as important, and it interacts with the genetic effects.”

Professor Meike Bartels, another of the study’s authors, said:

“This study is both a milestone and a new beginning: A milestone because we are now certain that there is a genetic aspect to happiness and a new beginning because the three variants that we know are involved account for only a small fraction of the differences between human beings.

We expect that many variants will play a part.”

Locating these variants will also allow us to better study the interplay between nature and nurture, as the environment is certainly responsible – to some extent – for differences in the way people experience happiness.”

Professor Bartels continued:

“The genetic overlap with depressive symptoms that we have found is also a breakthrough.

This shows that research into happiness can also offer new insights into the causes of one of the greatest medical challenges of our time: depression.”

The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics (Okbay et al., 2016).

4 Ways That Heavy Social Media Use May Lead To Depression

How social media use is linked to depression and anxiety.

How social media use is linked to depression and anxiety.

The more young adults use social media, the more likely they are to be depressed, a new study concludes.

Those who reported checking social media sites more frequently had 2.7 times the chance of being depressed.

However, because of its design, the study can’t tell us that social media is causing depression.

Similarly it can’t tell us that depression causes social media use.

But there is certainly an association to be explained.

Ms Lui yi Lin, the study’s first author, said:

“It may be that people who already are depressed are turning to social media to fill a void.”

If high social media use does influence depression, the authors think there could be a variety of mechanisms:

  1. Feeling worse in comparison to idealised representations of others (most people post photos of themselves happy and smiling and doing exciting things).
  2. Wasting time in meaningless activities reduces mood.
  3. Social media use could fuel internet addiction.
  4. Being on social media could lead to cyber-bullying.

Professor Brian A. Primack, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Because social media has become such an integrated component of human interaction, it is important for clinicians interacting with young adults to recognize the balance to be struck in encouraging potential positive use, while redirecting from problematic use.”

Professor Primack concluded:

“All social media exposures are not the same. Future studies should examine whether there may be different risks for depression depending on whether the social media interactions people have tend to be more active vs. passive or whether they tend to be more confrontational vs. supportive.

This would help us develop more fine-grained recommendations around social media use.

The study was published in the journal Depression and Anxiety (Lin et al., 2016).

Image credit: Dimitris Kalogeropoylos

Money And Happiness Have An Astonishing Relationship, New Study Finds

Before you go hell-for-leather for your next raise, consider this…

Before you go hell-for-leather for your next raise, consider this…

Getting more money does not make most people happier, a new study concludes.

However, losing money does make people less happy.

Losses matter much more, though, for people with a certain personality type.

Dr Christopher Boyce, who led the research, explained:

“It is often assumed that as our income rises so does our life satisfaction, however, we have discovered this is not the case.

What really matters is when income is lost and this is only important for people who are highly conscientious.”

The research involved over 18,000 people who were followed over a 9-year period.

No matter what people’s personality, increases in income did not increase their satisfaction with life, the scientists found.

People did get less satisfied with life, however, when they lost money.

Dr Boyce said:

“Continually increasing our income is not an important factor for achieving greater happiness and well-being for most people living in economically developed countries.

Instead, we should aim for financial stability to achieve greater happiness, while protecting those individuals who experience negative income shocks.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Boyce et al., 2016).

Money mind image from Shutterstock

You Can Feel Happier By Changing The Tone of Your Voice, Study Finds

People listen to their own voices, at least in part, to learn how they feel, study finds.

People listen to their own voices, at least in part, to learn how they feel, study finds.

Listening to our own voices helps us discover how we feel, new research finds.

We take cues from what we hear in our own voice and this feeds back into our emotional state.

So, trying to change how your voice sounds may help you feel happier.

The conclusions come from a study which fed back people’s own voice to them, while changing the tone of it slightly.

Sometimes researchers made people’s voice sound happier, sometimes sad, and sometimes no adjustment was made.

People in the study were not aware that their voices were being manipulated.

The results suggest that people listen to their own voices, at least in part, to learn how they feel.

Dr Petter Johansson, one of the study’s authors, said:

“The relationship between the expression and experience of emotions has been a long-standing topic of disagreement in the field of psychology.

This is the first evidence of direct feedback effects on emotional experience in the auditory domain.”

The study was published in the journal PNAS (Aucouturier et al., 2015).

Voice image from Shutterstock

Long-Held Belief About Happiness And Long Life Challenged By New Study

Unhappiness has frequently been linked to a shorter life — but is it really true?

Unhappiness has frequently been linked to a shorter life — but is it really true?

A large new study suggests being happier does not contribute to longevity.

In fact, it’s more likely that being unhealthy causes unhappiness.

That is why unhappiness has been frequently linked in the past to a shorter life.

Dr Bette Liu, who led the study, said:

“Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn’t make you ill.

We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a ten-year study of a million women.”

The conclusions come from the UK Million Women Study, which asked women about their health, happiness and lifestyles.

Five out of six women said they were generally happy, while the rest said they were generally unhappy.

People who were most unhappy tended be deprived, single, smokers who did little exercise.

After taking account of their lifestyles, though, happiness was not linked to whether they died over the next 10 years.

Professor Sir Richard Peto, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Many still believe that stress or unhappiness can directly cause disease, but they are simply confusing cause and effect.

Of course people who are ill tend to be unhappier than those who are well, but the UK Million Women Study shows that happiness and unhappiness do not themselves have any direct effect on death rates.”

The study was published in The Lancet (Liu et al., 2015).

The Type of Presents That Bring The Most Happiness

The study compared the effects of material purchases, like portable speakers and coffee makers, with experiential purchases, like tickets to a hockey game or a weekend ski trip.

The study compared the effects of material purchases, like portable speakers and coffee makers, with experiential purchases, like tickets to a hockey game or a weekend ski trip.

Material purchases can bring as much happiness as experiential ones — it’s just of a different type, a new study finds.

The finding is fascinating because until now studies have suggested that experiential purchases are superior.

Experiential purchases include things like holidays, concert tickets or visits to a spa.

Material purchases, though, can provide just as much pleasure in the long-run, the new research suggests.

For the study, people were asked to keep track of their levels of happiness five times a day over two weeks.

The study compared the effects of material purchases, like portable speakers and coffee makers, with experiential purchases, like tickets to a hockey game or a weekend ski trip.

The results showed that experiential purchases provided short intense bursts of pleasure which tended to fade away.

In contrast, material purchases brought repeated smaller doses of happiness over the weeks.

However, when people looked back at their purchases six weeks later, it was the experiences that gave them more satisfaction.

So, perhaps experiences still have the edge.

Mr Aaron Weidman, the study’s first author, said:

“The decision of whether to buy a material thing or a life experience may therefore boil down to what kind of happiness one desires.

Consider a holiday shopper deciding between tickets to a concert or a new couch in the living room.

The concert will provide an intense thrill for one spectacular night, but then it will end, and will no longer provide momentary happiness, aside from being a happy memory.

In contrast, the new couch will never provide a thrilling moment to match the concert, but will keep the owner snug and comfortable each day throughout the winter months.”

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (Weidman & Dunn, 2015).

Present image from Shutterstock

How Parental Absence Alters Children’s Brain Development

Some Chinese children are left with relatives while their parents travel for work.

Some Chinese children are left with relatives while their parents travel for work.

Children living without their parents for a period may suffer delayed brain development, a new study finds.

The Chinese research looked at children who were left behind with relatives while their parents travelled for work.

Some parents left home for months at a time, others for years.

The shift is particularly acute in China where so many workers migrate for better jobs.

Mr Yuan Xiao, one of the study’s authors, said:

“We wanted to study the brain structure in these left-behind children.

Previous studies support the hypothesis that parental care can directly affect brain development in offspring.

However, most prior work is with rather severe social deprivation, such as orphans.

We looked at children who were left behind with relatives when the parents left to seek employment far from home.”

Brains scans were given to 38 ‘left-behind’ children between 7- and 13-years-of-age.

These were compared with children who lived with their parents.

Left-behind children had more gray matter in areas of the brain related to memory and the emotions.

The researchers think this may be a result of insufficient pruning of synapses, the connections between neurons.

Synaptic pruning is thought to be a vital developmental stage in adolescence.

Children who had higher gray matter volume in these areas tended to have lower IQs, the researchers found.

Mr Xiao said:

“Our study provides the first empirical evidence showing that the lack of direct parental care alters the trajectory of brain development in left-behind children.

Public health efforts are needed to provide additional intellectual and emotional support to children left behind by parents.”

The study was presented at the Radiological Society of North America.

Child image from Shutterstock

This Is The Root of Happiness In Your Brain

Happiness has two components which predict the size of this brain region.

Happiness has two components which predict the size of this brain region.

Japanese neuroscientist have made a step forward in understanding the neurology of happiness.

They have found that happier people have a larger ‘precuneus’: an area towards the back of the brain, hidden between the two cerebral hemispheres.

The study is the first to link the area to happiness.

Researchers asked people about the two major components of happiness.

These are:

  • their moment-by-moment experience of happiness,
  • plus their feeling of satisfaction with life.

Positive emotions are what we naturally think of as happiness: the pleasure we get from a delicious meal or a fascinating conversation.

Satisfaction with life, though, comes more from cognitive evaluations of how well we are doing in general.

Satisfaction is less of a feeling and more of an idea or thought.

Brain scans revealed that both types of happiness were linked to larger grey matter mass in the precuneus.

The image below on the left shows the location of the right precuneus in the brain.

The graph on the right shows the association between increasing gray matter mass in this area and increasing subjective happiness.

The precuneus has been linked to all sorts of functions, including thoughts about the self, memory and the experience of consciousness itself.

The study’s authors write:

“…our results suggest that the precuneus may play an important role in integrating different types of information and converting it into subjective happiness.”

But the study does not necessarily suggest that your level of happiness is unchangeable.

Dr Wataru Sato, who led the research, said:

“Several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the precuneus.

This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing happiness programs based on scientific research.”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Sato et al., 2015).

Happy image from Shutterstock

The Age Group That’s Happier Now Than Ever Before

Could changes in society by behind shifts in happiness seen in latest research?

Could changes in society by behind shifts in happiness seen in latest research?

Americans over 30 are less happy than they used to be, new research finds.

But teens and young adults in the US are happier than previous generations.

It used to be that older people had a happiness advantage, but that could be disappearing.

That’s the result of surveys of 1.3 million Americans aged 13 to 96 carried out between 1972 and 2014.

Professor Jean M. Twenge, the study’s first author, said:

“Our current culture of pervasive technology, attention-seeking, and fleeting relationships is exciting and stimulating for teens and young adults, but may not provide the stability and sense of community that mature adults require.”

The number of people over 30 who said they were “very happy” has declined from 38% in the 1970s down to 23% in the 2010s.

The equivalent percentage for those aged 18 to 29 has gone up from 28% to 30% over the same timespan.

Teens have also become happier, on average, over the same period.

Professor Twenge said:

“American culture has increasingly emphasized high expectations and following your dreams– things that feel good when you’re young.

However, the average mature adult has realized that their dreams might not be fulfilled, and less happiness is the inevitable result.

Mature adults in previous eras might not have expected so much, but expectations are now so high they can’t be met.”

This drop in happiness was already detected in 2008, but only for women.

Professor Twenge said:

“A previous study in 2008 got quite a bit of attention when it found that women’s happiness had declined relative to men’s.

We now find declines in both men’s and women’s happiness, especially after 2010.”

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological Personality Science (Twenge et al., 2015).

Happiness image from Shutterstock

The Universal Remedy For Mind And Body That Is All Around Us

It reduces depression, ADHD and fights cancer, obesity and more…

It reduces depression, ADHD and fights cancer, obesity and more…

Being in nature relaxes the mind, which in turn enhances the immune system, new research finds.

This may explain why nature has a remarkably beneficial effect on a wide range of diseases including depression, ADHD, cancer, diabetes, obesity and many more.

Dr Ming Kuo, who carried out the research, explained how nature helps:

“When we feel completely safe, our body devotes resources to long-term investments that lead to good health outcomes — growing, reproducing, and building the immune system.

When we are in nature in that relaxed state, and our body knows that it’s safe, it invests resources toward the immune system.”

Being happy and relaxed are obviously good for your immune system in any case.

So relaxing indoor activities are also good for you, but probably not to the extent of being in nature, Dr Kuo said:

“If you are absorbed and relaxed, chances are your parasympathetic system is happy and your immune system is going to get a boost.

That said, these enjoyable indoor activities don’t provide the phytoncides, mycobacterium vaccae, negative air ions, vitamin D-producing sunlight, and other active ingredients found outdoors.

So we’d expect a smaller boost than you’d get from being in nature.”

To reach these conclusions, Dr Kuo reviewed a large range of studies on the connection between nature and good health.

She described nature as a sort of magical multivitamin:

“I pulled every bit of the research in this area together that I could find, and was surprised to realize I could trace as many as 21 possible pathways between nature and good health–and even more surprised to realize that all but two of the pathways shared a single common denominator.

The realization that there are so many pathways helps explain not only how nature promotes health, but also why nature has such huge, broad effects on health.

Nature doesn’t just have one or two active ingredients.

It’s more like a multivitamin that provides us with all sorts of the nutrients we need.

That’s how nature can protect us from all these different kinds of diseases–cardiovascular, respiratory, mental health, musculoskeletal, etc. — simultaneously.”

The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (Kuo, 2015).

Mental plasters image from Shutterstock