Category: Happiness

It’s a little depressing, but it probably confirms what you always thought.

People’s appearance and their money dominate how satisfied they feel with life, a survey reveals.

Among women, appearance was the third strongest predictor of how satisfied they were with life.

The top two places were taken by money and satisfaction with their partner.

For men their appearance came second in predicting how satisfied they were with life — it was second only to how happy they were with their financial situation.

Dr David Frederick, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study shows that men’s and women’s feelings about their weight and appearance play a major role in how satisfied they are with their lives overall.”

The survey asked over 12,000 US adults about their personality, relationships, self-esteem and more.

Dr Frederick said:

“Few men (24 percent) and women (20 percent) felt very or extremely satisfied with their weight, and only half felt somewhat to extremely satisfied.

These findings are consistent with the emphasis placed on the importance of being slender for women and for appearing athletic and/or lean for men.

It would seem therefore, that we still have a long way to go before we achieve the goal of Americans being truly happy with their bodies.”

Other key findings from the study included:

• People who watched more hours of television per week were less satisfied with their appearance and weight.
• People who were more satisfied with their physical appearance and weight reported more secure attachment styles, versus fearful and dismissive attachment styles.
• People who were more satisfied with their appearance reported greater self-esteem, greater satisfaction with life, sex life, friends, romantic partners, family, and financial situation.
• Body Mass Index (BMI) was strongly related to dissatisfaction with appearance and weight.

Dr Frederick said:

“…body dissatisfaction and anxious attachment styles can lead to an out of control spiral and fuel each other.

People who are less confident in their appearance become more fearful that their partner will leave, which further fuels their worries about their appearance.”

The study was published in the journal Body Image (Frederick et al., 2016).

Most people do not use this method of buying happiness, but perhaps they should…

Spending money to buy yourself time can bring happiness, research finds.

For example, hiring someone to clean your house or do other odd-jobs is beneficial to mental well-being.

Dr Ashley Whillans, the study’s first author, said:

“People who hire a housecleaner or pay the kid next door to mow the lawn might feel like they’re being lazy.

But our results suggest that buying time has similar benefits for happiness as having more money.”

The survey of 6,000 adults across the US, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands asked people how much they spent ‘buying time’ for themselves.

Those who spent the most (as a percentage of their income) were more satisfied with life.

Professor Elizabeth Dunn, who led the study, said:

“The benefits of buying time aren’t just for wealthy people.

We thought the effects might only hold up for people with quite a bit of disposable income, but to our surprise, we found the same effects across the income spectrum.”

A field experiment also backed up the survey finding.

People were randomly asked to spend $40 on either saving time or buying some material good.

People felt happier when they saved time.

However, most people don’t like outsourcing activities that save them time.

A survey of 850 millionaires found 50% did not spend a single dime on outsourcing disliked tasks.

And the rest of us are no different, with 98% of people surveyed saying they would NOT spend a $40 windfall in a way that saved them time.

Professor Dunn said:

“Although buying time can serve as a buffer against the time pressures of daily life, few people are doing it even when they can afford it.

Lots of research has shown that people benefit from buying their way into pleasant experiences, but our research suggests people should also consider buying their way out of unpleasant experiences.”

The study was published in the journal PNAS (Whillans et al., 2017).

What the continuous pressure to be happy is doing to some people’s emotions.

People who feel greater pressure to be happy report feeling worse all round, research finds.

The pressure to feel positive emotions is linked to more symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress.

It underlines the fact that the pressure to achieve what are, for many, unattainable emotions and ways of being is exhausting.

Ironically, then, the pressure to be happy can make you sad.

The conclusions come from a study that compared the well-being and the societal pressure to be happy of over 7,000 people in 40 different countries.

People who feel the largest pressure to be happy are those who live in countries which have high average levels of happiness, such as Nordic countries and Canada.

Dr Egon Dejonckheere, the study’s first author, said:

“The level of happiness individuals feel pressured to achieve may be unattainable and reveal differences between an individual’s emotional life and the emotions society approves of.

This discrepancy between an individual and society may create a perceived failure that can trigger negative emotions.

In countries where all citizens appear to be happy, deviations from the expected norm are likely more apparent, which makes it more distressing.”

The researchers used data from the World Happiness Index, which rates the happiest countries in the world as:

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Switzerland
4. Iceland
5. Netherlands
6. Norway
7. Sweden
8. Luxembourg
9. New Zealand
10. Austria

The United Kingdom comes 17th on the list, with the United States at 19th (the Canadians come 14th).

Feeling bad about feeling sad

Society’s expectations work negatively for negative emotions, just as they work negatively for positive emotions.

Other studies have also shown that people feel bad about feeling sad (Bastian, 2012).

When people perceive that others expect them to hide their sadness, they feel even worse.

As a result of societal pressure not to express negative emotions, people also evaluate themselves more negatively on top of feeling worse in the moment (Dejonckheere & Bastian, 2021).

Quite naturally, both these effects, on people’s thoughts and emotions, are linked to symptoms of depression (Dejonckheere et al., 2017).

One of the reasons seems to be that the culture of happiness increases people’s tendency to repeatedly think about their failures (McGuirk et al, 2018).

The study’s authors write:

“Humans value happiness.

Around the world, individuals share a similar aspiration to lead a satisfying and happy life, yet there is also an emerging recognition that this personal quest in itself may have well-being consequences.

Placing a premium on the value of positive emotion is known to paradoxically undermine our well-being, not only as a function of how we value happiness ourselves, but also as a function of how the society we live in emphasizes the importance of being happy.”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Dejonckheere et al., 2022).

Summer, spring, autumn and winter babies have different personalities when they grow up.

There is a link between a person’s birth season and their emotional life in adulthood, research finds.

Being born in a certain season may also be linked with developing a mood disorder later in life.

The Hungarian researchers examined the personalities of 400 people and matched this up with the time of year they were born.

They found that people born in summer are more likely than those born in winter to have a cyclothymic personality, characterised by frequent mood swings, between happy and sad.

The results also revealed a link between being born in either spring or summer and being excessively positive.

Those born in the winter had a higher chance of being less irritable.

Autumn babies were less likely to be depressives than winter babies.

D Xenia Gonda, who led the research, said:

“Biochemical studies have shown that the season in which you are born has an influence on certain monoamine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, which is detectable even in adult life.

This led us to believe that birth season may have a longer-lasting effect.

Our work looked at over 400 subjects and matched their birth season to personality types in later life.

Basically, it seems that when you are born may increase or decrease your chance of developing certain mood disorders.

We can’t yet say anything about the mechanisms involved.

What we are now looking at is to see if there are genetic markers which are related to season of birth and mood disorder.”

Professor Eduard Vieta, Director of the Bipolar Disorders Program at the University of Barcelona, commented on the study:

“Seasons affect our mood and behavior.

Even the season at our birth may influence our subsequent risk for developing certain medical conditions, including some mental disorders.

What’s new from this group of researchers is the influence of season at birth and temperament.

Temperaments are not disorders but biologically-driven behavioral and emotional trends.

Although both genetic and environmental factors are involved in one’s temperament, now we know that the season at birth plays a role too.

And the finding of “high mood” tendency (hyperthymic temperament) for those born in summer is quite intriguing.”

The research was presented at a neuropsychopharmacology conference in Berlin.

One handful of this food a day can help improve mood.

Eating walnuts can improve mood by 28 percent, research finds.

The conclusions come from the first study of its kind on walnuts.

Professor Peter Pribis, who led the study, said:

“In the past, studies on walnuts have shown beneficial effects on many health outcomes like heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Our study was different because we focused on cognition, and in this controlled randomized trial (CRT) we measured mood outcomes in males and females.”

For the study, half of the participants ate walnuts, which had been ground into banana bread so they were impossible to see or taste.

The rest ate the banana bread unfortified with walnuts.

Participants in the study filled in a questionnaire about their moods.

Professor Pribis explained:

“We used a validated questionnaire called Profiles of Mood States (POMS).

It is one of the most widely used and accepted mood scales in studies on cognition.

The test has six mood domains: tension, depression, anger, fatigue, vigor, confusion and also provides a Total Mood Disturbance score (TMD).

The lower the TMD score the better the mood.”

After eight weeks of eating the banana bread with walnuts, men in the study saw a 28 percent improvement in their mood.

Professor Pribis explained:

“There was a meaningful, 28 percent improvement of mood in young men.

However we did not observe any improvement of mood in females.

Why this is we do not know.”

However, other studies have shown mood improvements among women after eating walnuts.

Walnuts contain all sorts of nutrients which may help to improve mood.

These include alpha-Linolenic acid, vitamin E, folate, polyphenols and melatonin.

Professor Pribis concluded that the research is clear:

“Eat more walnuts.

This is an easy intervention.

They’re not only good for your mood, but overall health as well.

The recommended amount is one handful per day.”

Walnut research

Previous studies have shown that:

• Nuts and seeds, including walnuts improve life expectancy.
• Blueberries, strawberries and walnuts could help protect the brain from the consequences of ageing.
• Mothers who eat more nuts, including walnuts, during pregnancy have children with higher IQs.
• Eating nuts regularly has been shown to lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death rates from CVD.
• Whole walnuts can help to lower blood pressure.

The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Pribis, 2016).