On Twitter’s 10th birthday, we look at how researchers have used the platform for a range of studies, from predicting the next flu outbreak to identifying the happiest city in America.
Fall in love, have a baby, watch your happiness and satisfaction plummet. Psychology researchers know the transition to parenthood can be rough on relationships.
Our feelings of self-worth and contentment are no longer the preserve of writers and artists. Science has made measurement of our well-being a viable alternative to the banalities of economic output.
Research shows that when people share happy news on social media, they make their friends - and extended social network - happy too. Picking up on this trend is a new swathe of “good news” websites.
We can pursue our own happiness to the exclusion of the real world, but how meaningful can that be? Far better to engage with life and both the happiness and sadness it brings along the way.
Happiness might seem like a worthy goal but it will invariably be disrupted by unwelcome negative feelings. Far better to seek contentment, which can serve as a foundation for both joy and pleasure.
Women are supposed to be happy about motherhood – if they’re not their parenting is open to question. We have seen a ‘Parenting Hate’ backlash against this, but what’s needed most is better social support.
While the economics of happiness has boomed, the economics of unhappiness has been neglected. Yet there are many objective sources of unhappiness that good economic research might tackle productively.
To pose the question of whether we can love happiness feels a bit like asking whether the Pope is a Catholic. Most of us believe we not only can love happiness, but that we should!
Much of the fear of cancer arises from a lack of control, so I’m at my happiest when a patient with a new diagnosis comes in bewildered and shaken and leaves my office feeling a modicum of control.
Pixar’s new film, Inside Out, shows that chasing happiness along won’t necessarily bring well-being, which is a view backed by the latest psychological research.
Watching cute cat videos and looking at their online pictures may not be a waste of time. A new study has found doing so could boost energy levels and increase feelings of happiness.
A lifestyle based on aggressive consumption stresses the Earth’s resources and, beyond a certain point of comfort, does not actually foster human fulfillment or happiness.