If you think that the happier you are the better, then you might want to think again. A study published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology challenges the idea that more happiness is always better.
The study by University of Virginia psychology professor Shigehiro Oishi and colleagues found that European-Americans claim to be happier than Asian-Americans or Koreans or Japanese — but are more easily made less happy by negative events, and recover at a slower rate from negative events, than their counterparts in Asia or with an Asian ancestry.
On the other hand, Koreans, Japanese, and to a lesser extent, Asian-Americans, are less happy in general, but recover their emotional equilibrium more readily after a setback than European-Americans.
“We found that the more positive events a person has, the more they feel the effects of a negative event,†Oishi said. “People seem to dwell on the negative thing when they have a large number of good events in their life.
“It is like the person who is used to flying first class and becomes very annoyed if there is a half-hour delay. But the person who flies economy class accepts the delay in stride.â€
Studies such as this one don’t tell us much about the dynamics of happiness, but what they can do is hint at overall patterns. They emphasise the fact that extremely high levels of happiness are not always a good thing.
Reference
Oishi, S., Diener, E., Choi, D., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, I. (2007). The dynamics of daily events and well-being across cultures: When less is more.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 685-698.
