Exchanging ideas to create the well-being advantage

Before Christmas I came across some new research led by Harvard Medical School in the US which claimed that Happiness is infectious – that it ‘rubs off on others’ and can ripple through social groups. This is an extension of the well known concept of the ‘feelgood factor’ – the kind of thing that happens in better economic times or when the England football team do well in a big tournament. But the new research describes a different kind of infectious happiness – one that can be sustained by social networks, so I was interested to find out more.

The study, which was published in the British Medical Journal looked at 5,000 adults and concludes that a person’s happiness is dependent on the happiness of those around them. For example, the findings showed that a friend who becomes happy and lives less than a mile away increases your likelihood of happiness by 25%. But, interestingly, the mood of work colleagues did not have an effect – presumably because the ties we have to workmates are not of the same strength or quality as those we have to our friends and family.

The researchers used data on adults who took part in the US Framingham Heart Study – set up to look at the risks leading to future heart disease – between 1971 and 2003. Participants were asked to identify their relatives, close friends, place of residence, and place of work and were followed up every two to four years. They were also asked whether they agreed with statements on whether they enjoyed life, felt hopeful about the future, were happy and felt they were just as good as other people.

The results showed that when live-in partners become happy it increases the likelihood of their partner being happy by 8% and similar effects were found for siblings living close by (14%) and neighbours (34%). The relationship between people’s happiness levels seemed to extend up to three degrees of separation – to the friend of a friend of a friend – so networks can be quite wide and that all helps to spread happiness further.

Overall, the findings suggest that ‘clusters of happiness’ occur because happiness spreads and not just because of a tendency for people to associate with those who they think are like them. Study leader Professor Nicholas Christakis commented:

“Most important from our perspective is the recognition that people are embedded in social networks and that the health and well-being of one person affects the health and well-being of others.”

If we accept the premise of these results, they could have important implications for public health. If integrated communities and close-knit social networks are crucial for the spread of happiness, it seems pretty important that we take action to move away from the individualised society that we now live in. The credit crunch has been an unrequested catalyst that may begin to start this process in 2009, but if people believe that they will also be happier as a result they may make active and permanent changes. Of course, if happiness is infectious, it seems likely that sadness is as well – so it’s equally important that we don’t let a climate of doom and gloom settle over the country in the post-Christmas period!  In short…

Happy New Year

Read the BBC coverage at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/7765543.stm