Here are 31 Interesting Happiness facts.
1-5 Happiness Facts
1. Cherophobia is the belief that when one becomes happy, something bad will soon occur after feeling happiness. – Source
2. The wife’s happiness is more important than her husband’s when it comes to keeping a happy, lasting marriage, in a study that surveyed older couples married for an average of 39 years. – Source
3. Bhutan is the only country to have officially adopted gross national happiness instead of the gross domestic product as the main development indicator. – Source
4. According to Jainism, time runs on a cosmic wheel with 6 eras. We’re currently in the 5th, a time of sorrow, little happiness, averaging 6 ft tall and a <130-year lifespan. Eventually, we’ll return to the 1st era of utmost happiness, no sorrow, average 6 miles tall, and live 3 x 10^194 years. – Source
5. Schopenhauer called the post-orgasm moment of clarity as “devil’s laughter” because it’s when we realize we’re slaves to a biological imperative uncaring of our happiness. – Source
6-10 Happiness Facts
6. There was a professor who did a study on 1000s of elderly people and what advice they had about life. On happiness there was a consensus: “Almost to a person, the elders viewed happiness as a choice, not the result of how life treats you.” – Source
7. According to a Princeton study, more money makes people happier up to $75,000 a year. After that point, higher pay does not increase happiness. –Source
8. As China’s economy and average income skyrocket, the levels of personal happiness and personal satisfaction are dropping at about the same rate. – Source
9. An experimental program called Mincome existed in Canada in the 1970’s and gave everyone a minimum income just for being a citizen. It resulted in slightly fewer hours worked, but saw overall increases in health, happiness, and educational achievement. – Source
10. Smiling isn’t just a response to happiness. It causes happiness! – Source
11-15 Happiness Facts
11. Dutch women rank consistently low, compared to those in other Western countries, in terms of representation in top positions in business and government and rank consistently near the top in terms of happiness and well-being. – Source
12. Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics, which is about happiness and what makes life worth living, was only published for the first time in a modern language in 2011. – Source
13. According to a 2007 study by the University of Southern Denmark, the secret to happiness is to have low expectations of life. – Source
14. Frano Selak has survived 7 near death experiences, including being ejected from a plane mid-flight and then won the Croatian lottery with the first ticket he ever bought. He then gave away his fortune saying “Money cannot buy happiness”. – Source
15. The world’s oldest known smiley was on a 1635 Slovakian document, indicating the writer’s happiness with the state of the Chamberlain of Trenčín’s financial records. – Source
16-20 Happiness Facts
16. Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope used to masturbate in public to show happiness belonged to a man who rejected cultural norms. – Source
17. A Body Atlas reveals where we feel happiness and shame. – Source
18. A study comparing happiness levels between lottery winners and quadriplegics showed that lottery winners were less content in their everyday activities. – Source
19. Research shows that volunteering 100 hours per year (2 hrs per week) is the optimal amount of time to increase your personal happiness. – Source
20. Eccentric people live longer and report higher levels of happiness. – Source
21-25 Happiness Facts
21. In 1992, a scientist proposed that happiness is classified as a psychiatric disorder. – Source
22. Japanese has a word for working oneself to death, “Karoshi.” Despite economic prosperity, Japan continues to rank low on happiness metrics in the developed world. One factor is a crushing work-life. – Source
23. There’s something called the “World Happiness Report” that’s goal is to put the happiness of the people as a standard in government. – Source
24. There is a happiness gene in our genome that affects how happy we are. – Source
25. People taking vacations derive most of their happiness from anticipating the trip. The effect of vacation anticipation boosts happiness for eight weeks prior the trip, while typically the vacationer goes back to baseline happiness post-trip. – Source
26-31 Happiness Facts
26. After studying the development of 268 healthy people over a period of 75 years, Harvard scientists came to the conclusion that “Happiness is love”. – Source
27. Writing down three good things every day increases happiness and decreases depressive symptoms. – Source
28. A study shows that only about 5 percent of your happiness at a given moment is related to what you are doing. – Source
29. One can study “Happiness” as a subject at the University of Wollongong, Australia. – Source
30. There is a mathematical formula to predict happiness in people, finding that people are happier when they exceed expectations, regardless of how low it initially was. – Source
31. People can see the first signs of happiness in a face faster than the first signs of anger. – Source
