I loved the 2006 biographical film The Pursuit of Happyness. Happiness is an interesting commodity. We all pursue it, and we know it when we find it. (Well, I do.) Yet it’s difficult to define. Some light’s been shed on it by the most famous longitudinal population study ever done. The Framingham Heart Study has followed thousands of Framingham residents from 1948 to the present. Data on 4,739 participants between 1983 and 2003, revealing 65,200 social ties, were analysed to measure how social networks correlate with reported happiness. The result? Happiness is infectious. A person’s happiness depends on the happiness of others in his/her social network. Happy people increase the chance of their spouses/partners being happy by 8%, siblings living nearby by 14% and neighbours by a whopping 34%. Happiness had a measurable effect up to three degrees of separation, but didn’t extend to workmates. And physical proximity’s important: a person was 42% more likely to be happy if a happy friend lived under 800 metres away, but only 22% more likely if the happy friend lived over 3km away. So the secret’s to have happy friends and relatives living close by. However the analysis has been criticised regarding potential false positive biases, because social network effects can also be shown for acne and headache. Which reminds me that when Sweetheart Vivienne and our four darling daughters lived in one house, their menstrual periods moved toward concurrence.
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