This could be good news or bad news for places like Flint struggling with economic decline and the sadness it engenders. Studies reveal that our happiness is actually influenced by the happiness of those around us.
Our Social Brains, a blog that explores "new brain science and social behaviors" reports:
Our social brains are {happily} vulnerable to the emotional happiness of those around us. Both Harvard and University of California medical researchers working together have just reported (December, 2008) that happiness spreads like a virus through social networks (friends, family, co-workers, teammates, neighbors).
Your happiness can influence (and IS, in turn, influenced by) the happiness of the folks you hang out with. But wait, there’s more! The study showed that your perceptions of being happy not only increase with the happiness of your friends, but also with the friends’ friends’ friends. People you do not know and have never met. A big scholarly “Wow!”
In a desperate search to find something positive in Flint's economic woes, it's tempting to turn to the old adage that money can't buy you happiness.
Leave it to The New York Times to shoot down that theory: "A new study shows that people in wealthier countries are more likely to be satisfied with their lives. Earlier research had suggested that satisfaction did not necessarily increase once basic needs were met."
But wait, maybe there's still hope. As the chart below shows, spending more money on healthcare doesn't ensure a longer life. Oh wait, I guess that's more bad news for Flint and the rest of America. Never mind.
