Research Study Finds Happiness Is Contagious

For a gift that truly keeps on giving, here is a superb resolution for the New Year: Be Happy!

A "study of more than 4,700 people who were followed over 20 years
found that people who are happy or become happy boost the chances that
someone they know will be happy. The power of happiness, moreover, can
span another degree of separation, elevating the mood of that person's
husband, wife, brother, sister, friend or next-door neighbor."
The quote above is from a Washington Post article

"Happiness Can Spread Among People Like a Contagion, Study Indicates"
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer,
Friday, December 5, 2008; Page A08

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403537.html

The study, conducted by James H. Fowler, associate professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas A Christakis, professor, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, and Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, has been published online by BMJ, the British Medical Journal. See http://www.bmj.com/cgi/search?fulltext=happiness&x=0&y=0
for a link to the study:

"Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study"
BMJ 2008;337:a2338, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a2338 (Published 4 December 2008)