09 Oct The happiness paradox
This is a happiness story that’s very interesting!
The happiness paradox
Monday, October 08, 2007
Thanks to scientific research, we now know that people with high happiness quotients are more likely to suffer greater bouts of unhappiness.
That’s the conclusion of a study in the October issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers found that people need a cer tain ratio of positive to negative events to be happy. For example, couples need about three times more positive experiences with each other as negative ones to feel satisfied with the relationship, according to the study by University of Virginia psychologist Shigehir Oishi.
But Oishi discovered that people who report a large ratio of positive to negative events also seem to derive diminishing returns from additional happy events — and even larger ad verse effects when they suffered negative events.
Think of it this way: The higher you climb the ladder of happiness, the less fulfilling it is; and if you suffer a misstep, the longer your fall will be.
Is there a lesson to be learned from this? You bet. Don’t be too happy, it could ruin your day.