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| The random number generator laughs at me once more. Here's another bit about happiness, this one from last year in Knowable. Scientists scrutinize happiness research  From meditation to smiling, researchers take a second look at studies claiming to reveal what makes us happy "Claiming" being the key word there. As if the answer is the same for everyone. We all want to be happy... [Citation needed] ...and for decades, psychologists have tried to figure out how we might achieve that blissful state. Maybe it's by not paying any attention to psychologists? But psychology has undergone serious upheaval over the last decade, as researchers realized that many studies were unreliable and unrepeatable. This is my shocked face:  Here’s what we know so far, and what remains to be reassessed, according to a new analysis in the Annual Review of Psychology. I'm skimming a bit. I'm late getting to this today, and tomorrow's entry may be early; plus, I just ragged on happiness research yesterday. One long-standing hypothesis is that smiling makes you feel happier. Spoiler: questionable, unverified. Which, again, absolutely shocks me (in a sarcastic way), because if there were ever a perfect example of confusing cause and effect, this would be it. I don't doubt it works for some people. But again, not everyone. For me, if I had to paste a fake smile on my face all day (say if I had to work a ret-hell job), someone would end up getting punched. Researchers have also found that external agencies can promote people’s happiness. Giving people cash promoted life satisfaction, as did workplace interventions such as naps. Huh. By absolute coincidence, having money and taking naps make me happy. The researchers didn’t find clear evidence of benefits for volunteering, performing random acts of kindness or meditation. I take it they also didn't find those things decreased happiness, so if you want to do them, do them. Dunn and Folk didn’t find any preregistered studies at all on exercising or spending time in nature, two oft-recommended strategies. Again, just me here, but I find that exercise has other benefits; spending time in nature, on the other hand, just means I have to check myself for ticks afterwards. It does make me appreciate my nice comfortable house and bed more, so I suppose there's that. Anyway, most of the article is about applying greater rigor to psychology studies, which is probably a good thing overall. And that's probably all I have on happiness for a while. Maybe. Hopefully. |
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