Category: Happiness

People with this personality trait are more hopeful and assess their lives more positively.

People who believe in the oneness of everything are happier, research finds.

‘Oneness’ is the idea that everything in the world is interdependent and interconnected.

This includes a sense of connectedness to other people, nature and life in general.

Beliefs like these are incorporated in many religions.

However, whether or not people have a specific faith, they are more satisfied with life when they have a sense of ‘oneness’.

Activities such as yoga, meditation and action sports may help to increase the feeling of oneness or flow.

Dr Laura Marie Edinger-Schon, the study’s author, said:

“The feeling of being at one with a divine principle, life, the world, other people or even activities has been discussed in various religious traditions but also in a wide variety of scientific research from different disciplines.

The results of this study reveal a significant positive effect of oneness beliefs on life satisfaction, even controlling for religious beliefs.”

The conclusions come from two surveys that included almost 75,000 people.

People were asked whether they agreed with statements like:

• “I believe that everything in the world is based on a common principle.”
• “Everything in the world is interdependent and influenced by each other.”

They were also asked how much they felt connected to nature and other people and how happy they were.

The results showed that people who felt a sense of ‘oneness’ were more satisfied with their lives.

Dr Edinger-Schon explained her motivation for the study:

“I recognized that in various philosophical and religious texts, a central idea is the idea of oneness.

In my free time, I enjoy surfing, Capoeira, meditation and yoga, and all of these have been said to lead to experiences that can be described as being at one with life or nature or just experiencing a state of flow through being immersed in the activity.

I was wondering whether the larger belief in oneness is something that is independent of religious beliefs and how it affects satisfaction with life.”

The study was published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Edinger-Schons, 2019).

From the mental health benefits of gardening to the healing power of birdsong — explore the psychology of nature.

People are spending less and less time enjoying the outdoors and nature with every passing year.

The recent shift away from nature has been incredible: some studies estimate people now spend 25 percent less time in nature than they did 20 years ago (Pergams & Zaradic, 2007).

Instead, recreational time is often spent online, playing video games and watching movies.

The psychological literature clearly reveals how beneficial the experience of nature is to our minds.

In nature people feel more alive, creative, in sync and less stressed.

Here are 7 psychology studies from the members-only section of PsyBlog exploring the psychology of nature.

(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)

1. The Great Disconnect: How Humans Are Losing Touch With Nature
2. The Reason Being In Nature Feels So Good
3. How Nature Heals The Brain Of Stress
4. The Mental Health Benefits Of Gardening
5. How Nature Can Lower Your Risk Of Dementia
6. Spend This Long In Nature To Feel Fantastic
7. The Beautiful Sound That Reduces Anxiety, Paranoia And Depression

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For the study, 582 people described strategies for improving their well-being.

People who take up hobbies or interests that involve other people are happier one year later, research finds.

In comparison to those using non-social strategies, the socially focused were more satisfied with life.

Ms Julia Rohrer, the study’s first author, said:

“Our research showed that people who came up with ‘well-being’ strategies that involved other people were more satisfied with their lives one year later — even after taking into account that they were marginally happier to begin with.

In contrast, people who came up with strategies that did not explicitly involve others remained, on average, as satisfied as they were.”

For the study, 582 people described strategies for improving their well-being.

Some suggested non-social things like giving up smoking.

Others chose social things like spending more time with their family and friends or helping others.

The life satisfaction of those choosing nonsocial things remained the same one year later, while those who chose social things saw improvements in life satisfaction.

Ms Rohrer said:

“Many people are interested in becoming happier, but there is a lack of evidence regarding the long term effects of pursuing happiness through various types of activities.

After all, there’s no guarantee that trying to become happier doesn’t make you more miserable in the end.

I think our study partly fills that gap in the literature, although more research with a longitudinal perspective is certainly needed.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Rohrer et al., 2018).

The best personality traits for happiness differ for work and play.

The personality trait most strongly linked to happiness right across the lifespan is emotional stability, research finds.

People who are high in emotional stability, which is the opposite of being neurotic, tend to be positive, have high self-control along with the ability to manage psychological stress effectively.

Looking specifically at work and social satisfaction, though, other personality traits were also important along with emotional stability.

For work satisfaction, the best personality trait was conscientiousness, a trait linked to being self-disciplined and aiming for achievement.

For social satisfaction, though, extraversion and agreeableness were most strongly linked to happiness.

Happiness across the lifespan

The conclusions come from a study exploring how the link between personality and happiness might change with age.

Dr Gabriel Olaru, the study’s first author, said:

“Many studies have shown that people with certain personality profiles are more satisfied with their life than others.

Yet, it had not been extensively studied whether this holds true across the lifespan.

For example, extraverted—that is sociable, talkative—people might be particularly happy in young adulthood, when they typically are forming new social relationships.

We thus wanted to examine if some personality traits are more or less relevant to life, social and work satisfaction in specific life phases.”

The study included over 9,000 Dutch adults of all ages who were tracked over more than a decade.

The results showed that the connections between life satisfaction and personality remained much the same over the lifespan.

Dr Manon van Scheppingen, study co-author, said:

“Our findings show that—despite differences in life challenges and social roles—personality traits are relevant for our satisfaction with life, work and social contacts across young, middle and older adulthood.

The personality traits remained equally relevant across the adult lifespan, or became even more interconnected in some cases for work satisfaction.”

Personality and environment interact

People’s personality also interacts with the environment, explained Dr van Scheppingen:

“A good example of how personality interacts with the environment can be found in the work context.

One of our findings was that the link between emotional stability and work satisfaction increases across age.

This might be explained by the fact that emotionally stable people are less scared to quit unsatisfactory jobs and more likely to apply for jobs that are more challenging and perhaps more fulfilling and enjoyable in the long run.”

Despite what many believe, personality is capable of change, said Dr van Scheppingen:

“While we did not examine what caused these changes, [the research] shows that our personalities and our happiness are not set in stone.

Perhaps we may even be able to influence how we change: If we try to become more organized, outgoing, friendly, this might increase life, social or work satisfaction as well.”

→ Related: How To Change Your Personality

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Olaru et al., 2023).

Even James Dean looked cooler when he smiled.

People are rated as looking ‘cooler’ when they smile and show their emotions, research finds.

It rubbishes the popular idea that keeping an inexpressive poker face makes you look ‘cool’.

In fact, an inexpressive face makes people look colder, rather than cool.

Dr Caleb Warren, the study’s first author, said:

“We found over and over again that people are perceived to be cooler when they smile compared to when they are inexpressive in print advertisements.

Being inexpressive makes people seem unfriendly or cold rather than cool.”

For the study people were shown a series of adverts in which celebrities were either smiling or not smiling.

It included well-know people, such as James Dean, Emily Didonato and Michael Jordan, alongside less well-known models.

People rated how cool the model seemed when they were smiling versus not smiling.

James Dean, for example, was rated ‘cooler’ in photographs where he was smiling, which surprised the researchers.

James Dean is an icon of cool and often pictured with a sultry, half-frown.

There was only one exception to the general rule that smiling was cool.

That was when mixed martial arts fighters were facing off at a press conference.

Then, it wasn’t cool to smile — better to look tough and serious.

A serious face is more dominant, and looks cooler when the situation demands dominance.

Dr Warren said:

“This inaccurate belief about how to become cool can influence the way we communicate with others, and being inexpressive can hurt relationships.

It also makes it more difficult to understand one another.

For these reasons, being inexpressive isn’t necessarily cool.”

The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology (Warren et al., 2018).

40,000 combined years of marriage experience boiled down to these five points.

The largest ever survey of long-term marriages has revealed the five keys to a happy marriage.

Over 700 people who have been married for a combined total of 40,000 years (!) took part.

They were asked how to find a suitable partner, how to get through difficult times and any other advice on love and marriage they had.

Professor Karl Pillemer explained his aims:

“Rather than focus on a small number of stories, my goal was to take advantage of the ‘wisdom of crowds,’ collecting the love and relationship advice of a large and varied cross-section of long-married elders in a scientifically reliable and valid way.”

The top five lessons for a happy marriage were:

1. Learn to communicate

Professor Pillemer explained:

“For a good marriage, the elders overwhelmingly tell us to ‘talk, talk, talk.’

They believe most marital problems can be solved through open communication, and conversely many whose marriages dissolved blamed lack of communication.”

2. Get to know your partner before marrying

Professor Pillemer said:

“Many of the elders I surveyed married very young; despite that fact, they recommend the opposite.

They strongly advise younger people to wait to marry until they have gotten to know their partner well and have a number of shared experiences.

An important part of this advice is a lesson that was endorsed in very strong terms: Never get married expecting to be able to change your partner.”

3. Treat marriage as unbreakable and lifelong

Professor Pillemer said:

“Rather than seeing marriage as a voluntary partnership that lasts only as long as the passion does, the elders propose a mindset in which it is a profound commitment to be respected, even if things go sour over the short term.

Many struggled through dry and unhappy periods and found ways to resolve them — giving them the reward of a fulfilling, intact marriage in later life.”

4. Learn to work as a team

Professor Pillemer said:

“The elders urge us to apply what we have learned from our lifelong experiences in teams — in sports, in work, in the military — to marriage.

Concretely, this viewpoint involves seeing problems as collective to the couple, rather than the domain of one partner.

Any difficulty, illness, or setback experienced by one member of the couple is the other partner’s responsibility.”

5. Choose someone similar to you

Professor Pillemer said:

“Marriage is difficult at times for everyone, the elders assert, but it’s much easier with someone who shares your interests, background and orientation.

The most critical need for similarity is in core values regarding potentially contentious issues like child-rearing, how money should be spent and religion.”

The research is published in Professor Pillemer’s book.