A little fun goes a long way to make people happy, according to a newly developed equation for happiness.
By studying how people react to recent events in their lives, researchers have developed a mathematical formula to predict the happiness of people based on their mood at any moment he swings.
So what is the solution to happiness? It is managing expectations.
The equation shows that people are happier when things are going better than expected, since when study participants exceeded their own expectations in a decision-making task, according to a study published yesterday (August 4) in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [5 Wacky ways to quantify happiness]
Pending a lunch date with friends, find a preferential parking at work, have a young child generally moody shot another time for his nap ... when life exceeds your expectations, make you happy, researchers say . On the other hand, if breakfast is made, your inbox is full of work emails harassment or your child wets the bed, disappointment can quickly sour the mood.
However, in the real world, the study results do not mean that scientists recommend people go through life with low expectations.happy poems
"Emotions are not something we should be afraid," said lead study author Robb Rutledge, a neuroscientist at University College London in the UK. "Happiness and sadness are part of being human. Happiness does not depend on the way things are going well, but whether they are better or worse than expected. This means that happiness can be useful to tell us whether to change what we do. If we are more unhappy than usual, maybe sometimes that means we should try something different. If we are happy, maybe that means that we do things right, "said Rutledge Live Science in an email interview.
For example, if an activity such as checking your email at work in the morning triggers a bad mood for a long time afterwards. Rutledge recommended spacing these unpleasant parts of the day so that your mood does not fall too low. "Also, try to finish the day in something that can be good, so do not come home in a bad mood," he said.
Rutledge and her co-authors first developed the mathematical formula by studying 26 people who were invited to take decisions that led to victories and fixed or risk financial losses. Study participants played the game for money in an fMRI (functional MRI) machine that followed his brain activity. After every few decisions, they were asked to report their level of happiness.
Happiness correlated with activity in two brain regions - the ventral striatum and insula. These two areas are linked by feelings of well-being and ventral striatum help produce dopamine, a brain chemical that transmits signals between cells and is associated with pleasure and desire.
From the results, the researchers developed the equation of happiness, which included variables such as: a factor of forgetfulness, where the latest developments are more influential than the first years of life; a term weight events which will influence on happiness; the average reward of a game if selected; and the reward received less than expected. [Knowing where the happiest (and sad) People live]happy poems
The researchers then crowdsourced the next step. The equation was tested on 18,420 people who played a smartphone game called "The Great Experiment brain." (This scavenger hunt risk-reward is still ongoing, and the application can be downloaded online.) The application also asked people to take risks to win, this time playing for points instead of money. The results showed a consistent relationship between the rewards, expectations and happiness, the researchers found.
Happiness depends more rewards and expectations as the general wealth, he or she has accumulated in the last game of a participant, the results showed. For example, a feeling of happiness comes from the gap between what is expected and what is achieved. A positive differential promotes happiness, while a negative gap causes bad feelings.
"Our themes to make decisions between risk and security options, and often take risks in hopes of getting a better result," Rutledge said. "If they get the best result, which certainly gives them happiness, but happiness is not coming down if they lose. Just as in real life situations, the greatest happiness tends to be after many things went well. The greatest misfortune They tend to be after many things go wrong. These extremes are more likely when people take many risks. "
Finally, the use of the equation to analyze the differences in how people respond to events such as gains and losses in the game of brain research could lead to a better understanding of the mood disorder, researchers said. The team is now testing people with depression to see if the equation can predict the happiness of these people, says Rutledge.
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