Pursuit of happiness

Steven Turner 7 October 2010

Happiness is a collective phenomenon and strongly related to the close physical proximity of friends according to findings from Harvard’s Medical School. An analysis of behavioural patterns found that a person is 42 percent more likely to be happy if a friend who lives less than half a mile away becomes happy - a figure that declined with greater distance.

Study leader Professor Nicholas Christakis said: “The most important thing from our perspective is the recognition that people are embedded in social networks and that the health and wellbeing of one person affects the health and wellbeing of others.” He concluded by saying that the results suggest clusters of happiness occur because happiness spreads and not just because of a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals.