Reflecting on Yesterday’s High Points May Lead to Today’s

August 21st, 2009

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Often, studies focusing on aspects of mental health are concentrated on specific issues or negative experiences within a group of people. But in a creative research project just carried out in the UK, participants were given the task to try and generate happiness – something the researchers hoped would benefit not only their subjects, but society at large as the smiles began to spread. After being given a basic survey, participants were trained on one of four different tasks, which included smiling, reflecting on a positive memory from the day previous, performing an act of kindness, or expressing gratitude. Results collected a week later revealed that the reflecting group experienced the highest rise in reported happiness –around fifteen percent. Those who performed an act of kindness had the lowest return; in fact, they collectively felt eight percent less happy than they had originally reported. Though the researchers note that the data is fairly unreliable, they report a seven percent increase in national happiness based on a representative sample taken after the project was completed.

 

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