Who are the two happiest people you know? I’ll call mine J and B. Both J and B seem to know ‘everybody’ in the village – and they take a genuine interest. They remember things that show they’ve been listening (which I take to mean that they are interested – interested enough to listen.)

I’ve been reading research in a book called, “Connected,” which boldy claims that some pretty surprising conditions are what they call, “contagious.”  Specifically, happiness is emotionally contagious. Call it whatever you’re happiest with – ‘happiness’ or ‘joy’ or ‘contentedness’ – they say a large dose of it is something you’ve caught from your connections! Yes, you’ve caught it from someone else!

Here's the really weird bit: you may have ‘caught’ it from their connections – connections that you’ve never met. The mechanism seems rooted in our natural tendency to mirror the facial expressions of those we spend time with. If you see one of the happiest people you know, their face is likely to light up, and you feel culturally, sociologically, and physiologically bound (unconsciously) to match their smile. Then your brain runs a file-check on what muscles you are using and what they ‘mean’ and before you know why, voila, you suddenly start feeling happier.

Large statistical sample used in the book by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler shows that the researched emotions (including ‘unhappiness’) appear in clusters of the social networks you play a role in such as your Book Club, Sports Club, other parents, and so on to include any group of people you can define that you belong to.

Unsurprisingly, if you are connected to many happy people, your group tends to experience perceived happiness. The more surprising matter is that your happy connections, in their turn, will be connected to other shiny, happy, people – and they may be the reason the group is happier than neighbouring unhappy groups.  In fact the reason you’re happy may be caused by a connection of your connection’s connection!

Here’s the wow-factor… your ‘happiness’ may less down to you as an individual than is popularly thought. The group can be way more influential than the individuals that make up the group. Our action plan seems clear: find happy connections and get connected.

In the first line of, “Smile,” a poem by Spike Milligan, he says that, “Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu, When someone smiled a me today, I started smiling too…”

Next time I see J and B, I’m going to thank them for infecting me… and then I’m going to pass it on! [Oh, and I may ask J and B about their closest friends…]

Lex

A Moodscope member