March 17, 2024 — Professor Bruce Hood at the University of Bristol wants us to know that we can indeed learn to be happier. He has been teaching the Science of Happiness there since 2018 and measuring the results over time. Collaborating with Catherine Hobbs, Sarah Jelbert, and Laurie Santos in Higher Education, he reports that coursework in positive […]
May 24, 2023 — The logic of trying to turn food into medicine simply escapes us. The week, the Washington Post has a new twist on food as medicine – telling us to eat our greens if we want better mental health. It leaves us with mixed feelings. On one hand, we’re all in on the concept of finding […]
March 26, 2023 — Food is medicine, say folks in certain food policy circles, and we have an abundant supply of it – especially in the U.S. So why is it true in this country that we have more food, find less joy in it, and live shorter lives? Eating More, Enjoying It Less, Losing Years of Life American […]
December 24, 2021 — These holidays are supposed to be joyful. But we are into a second year of holidays that are bringing the sorrow of isolation, loneliness, and loss every bit as much as they are bringing joy. The uncertainty of omicron is disrupting joyful plans for many people in this season. So no, this is not our […]
October 17, 2020 — We are living in uneasy times. If you want to quantify that, check out the Hedonometer at the Computational Story Lab at the University of Vermont. According to their analyses, Twitter was a pretty happy place before 2020. Peter Dodds and colleagues on the Hedonometer project wrote in 2015 that human language has a “universal […]
September 19, 2020 — It’s hard to doubt that we’re living in challenging times. If you need evidence, take a look at data on happiness. Since 1972, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago has been tracking the happiness of Americans. This year, in the midst of a pandemic, we’ve hit an all-time low. In […]
July 11, 2019 — Does money bring happiness? That’s a matter of some debate. Though poverty doesn’t do it, research suggests that money isn’t always the best answer for pursuing happiness. In fact, recent research suggests that active living might bring more joy than money. Exercise and Mental Health In Lancet, Sammi Chekroud and colleagues published a large study […]
June 1, 2018 — In 1886, JAMA advised its readers that, with proper feeding, an infant grows fat and happy. Many cultures for many years have linked fatness with happiness. Now, in Social Science & Medicine, Shuanglong Li and colleagues tell us they have empirical evidence. Among urban Chinese adults, they claim that happiness brings a higher BMI. Causality […]
May 4, 2018 — This isn’t too mysterious. A number of recent studies are making it ever more clear that even small bits of exercise can give you a boost – in health and happiness. It doesn’t take long bouts of intense activity. From the Journal of Happiness Studies You gotta love this journal. Peer-reviewed and devoted to the scientific […]
January 29, 2017 — A new study in PLoS One points once again to a simple way to get happy and get healthy. Find joy in an active life. Researchers from the University of Cambridge wrote a smartphone app. More than 10,000 people downloaded and used it to keep track of their moods and lifestyle choices. Accelerometers in the phones […]
