I read this same story, and the article did not tell us how "happiness" was operationally defined in the study.
The reader is left to assume that "happiness" is defined by just the presence of a positive mood, a kind gesture and/or positive facial expression (smile) from the people physically near to us. That makes this interesting, as there is so much discussion of "happiness", so many books and women's magazines that tell us to question if we really are "happy", and perhaps just naturally being a resilient and optimistic person is what "happiness" is all about, as well as being kind to others. How easy is it to smile at someone as your heading off to work, especially that we now know that it is contagious!
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I read this same story, and the article did not tell us how "happiness" was operationally defined in the study.
The reader is left to assume that "happiness" is defined by just the presence of a positive mood, a kind gesture and/or positive facial expression (smile) from the people physically near to us. That makes this interesting, as there is so much discussion of "happiness", so many books and women's magazines that tell us to question if we really are "happy", and perhaps just naturally being a resilient and optimistic person is what "happiness" is all about, as well as being kind to others. How easy is it to smile at someone as your heading off to work, especially that we now know that it is contagious!
December 7, 2008 - 3:57pmThis Comment
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