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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Myth or Science ?

Does sharing good news affect our mood?

When good things happen to you, do you immediately call a friend or run over to your parents to share the joy? Well, if it isn’t your style, you might reconsider. A study shows that those who sought out others when good things happened to them were consistently happier than those who did not share their good news. Additionally, this "capitalizing" effect held irrespective of the events themselves, meaning that if two people both had positive things happen to them, the happier person would be the one who shared the good news. The study ruled out alternative explanations for these findings. For example, personality did not play a role, given that the results were due to high levels of extraversion in the study's participants.

Peoples' responses to an individuals good news are also important. Only when others reacted with genuine enthusiasm (as opposed to indifference or feigned happiness) did sharing make people happier. So happiness is not just the result of sharing joy, rather, it is also a result of sharing good news with the right people. (Extract from Organizational Behavior – Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge)

3 comments:

Suniel said...

Hi,
I completely agree that sharing good news not only makes us happy but also multiplies our joy by three folds.
Now whether its a Myth or Science, Who cares? The point here is are we happy at the end of the day, and did our happiness created a positive effect on others.

AzureLearning said...

Yes, well said...Its as simple as it gets. Share your joy with others and you change the world of others and most importantly, of ourselves.

Sometimes we forget what we are here for and that is simply to live. And what we do, unnecessarily entangle ourselves into complex things.

We require such reminders from someone to get back on track.

Unknown said...

When I was reading this blog of yours, it was the last line that was coming in my mind and hey, I saw it in the end!!

I too would like to insist that sharing should happen with the right person,otherwise you automatically get the negative vibrations while with wrong people and this ultimately discourages you to share your happiness with others next time.