Happiness Thrives in The Company of Others, Even With Mundane Activities
“These results suggest that whether we are eating, reading, or even cleaning up around the house, happiness thrives in the company of others,” say the authors of a new study.
The next time you have to go to the post office or grocery shopping, call a friend and make a date out of it. Why? Because it's good for you.
So says new research linking happiness to companionship across dozens of different daily activities. Researchers used a large set of data called the American Time Use Survey (conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau) that covered 41,000 people and examined data from four years during which survey respondents were asked to rate their happiness while undertaking daily activities.
“These results suggest that whether we are eating, reading, or even cleaning up around the house, happiness thrives in the company of others,” the study authors wrote, adding that the research “suggests that we are leaving some happiness on the table by engaging in everyday activities alone.”
It is already well-established that social interaction is a vital component of human happiness in general, the idea that even mundane chores and traditionally solitary activities could be made more enjoyable by the presence of a friend is more remarkable. Behavioral science professor Nicholas Epley told the Washington Post: “I was still surprised by the magnitude and extremity of the effects.”
The researchers also noted that even though the actual differences in happiness from socializing are “relatively small,” because people have “countless opportunities to socialize throughout their daily lives, these small effects may accumulate into meaningful differences in overall happiness.”
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