So You Want to Be Happy?

Psychology professors are often expected to be like the guru on the mountaintop–sources of all types of advice on how to be happy. We actually do know quite a lot about happiness, based on the work of scholars like Ed Diener and Martin Seligman, but I’m not sure we’re in the guru class yet.

So I was intrigued to see a new report from Doug Gentile and his colleagues at Iowa State (Gentile, Sweet, & He, 2019) that tells us we can be much happier in only 12 minutes. That sounds like something my students would want to know!

Gentile et al. (2019) asked students to spend 12 minutes walking around a building thinking about one of three different things:

1. Loving-kindness Condition: “As you walk around, I want you to notice the people you see. Really try to look at them and as you’re looking at them, think to yourself, ‘I wish for this person to be happy.’ Try to really mean it when you think about it. Do this for 12 min then return to the lab and I will ask you to write down a summary of your experience as well as fill out a few surveys again. So again, notice the people you see and think to yourself ‘I wish for this person to be happy’ for each of them.”
2. Interconnectedness Condition. “As you walk around, I want you to notice the people you see. Really try to look at them and as you’re looking at them, think about how you are connected to them. For example, besides both being students here, this person might take a similar class to you, and feel many of the same stresses and hopes you do. You may eat at the same restaurant. Where did that food come from? It was prepared by the same cook, who got the food from a store, who got the food of a truck driven by someone, who got it from a warehouse, who got it from a distributor, who got it from a farmer, who got the seeds from a company who did the research on seeds at the university, etc. Try to think of all the ways in which you share connections with all of the people around you, and see all of the similarities you have with people who may initially seem diferent. Do this for 12 min then return to the lab and I will ask you to write down a summary of your experience as well as fll out a few surveys again. So again, notice the people you see and consider all the diferent ways in which you are connected to each of them.”
3. Downward Social Comparison condition (DSC). “As you walk around, I want you to notice the people you see. Really try to look at them and as you’re looking at them, think to yourself about how you are better of than they are. You can think how your life might be better than theirs, or how something may be easier for you than for them, or whatever. It might be diferent for diferent people you see. Do this for 12 min then return to the lab and I will ask you to write down a summary of your experience as well as fll out a few surveys again. So again, notice the people you see and think about some way you might be better of than each of them.”

A fourth, control group was asked to focus on what people are wearing, their make-up, and other superficial factors.

Who do you think was most happy after the end of the 12 minutes? Not only was the Loving-Kindness group happier, but they were also less anxious, more empathic, and had greater feelings of interconnectedness.

Why does this work? It’s hard to know for sure without follow-up research. Usually, thinking about the self produces less happiness, so possibly the focus on others distracts from thinking about the self. Patients undergoing therapy who use “I” and “me” more often in their speech are prone to depression (Zimmermann, Wolf, Bock, Peham, & Benecke, 2013). Still, there is much more to happiness than the lack of depression.

Personally, I think a great follow-up to Gentile et al. might involve social media. Does making comments in which you truly wish others well make us happy? I’m guessing that it does.

Gentile, D.A., Sweet, D.M. & He, L. (2019). Caring for others cares for the self: An experimental test of brief downward social comparison, loving‑kindness, and interconnectedness contemplations Journal of Happiness Studies. doi: 10.1007/s10902-019-00100-2

Zimmermann, J., Wolf, M., Bock, A., Peham, D., & Benecke, C. (2013). The way we refer to ourselves reflects how we relate to others: Associations between first-person pronoun use and interpersonal problems. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(3), 218–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.01.008