Happiness spreads among network of friends

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Happiness spreads among network of friends

 

In a study that looked at the happiness of nearly 5000 individuals over a period

of twenty years, researchers found that when an individual becomes happy, the

network effect can be measured up to three degrees. One person's happiness

triggers a chain reaction that benefits not only their friends, but their

friends' friends, and their friends' friends' friends. The effect lasts for up

to one year.

 

The flip side, interestingly, is not the case: Sadness does not spread through

social networks as robustly as happiness. Happiness appears to love company more

so than misery.

 

" We've found that your emotional state may depend on the emotional experiences

of people you don't even know, who are two to three degrees removed from you, "

says Harvard Medical School professor Nicholas Christakis, who, along with James

Fowler from the University of California, San Diego co-authored this study. " And

the effect isn't just fleeting. "

 

Read full article at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97831171