What is happiness?

Recent research on what makes people happy. 5 traits of happy people.




Your Morals is a great blog/research site. You can sign up and explore your morals while helping researcher do research on morals, ethics and correlations amongst behaviors.

Recently there was a post about how consumer choices correlate to happiness. (See: http://www.yourmorals.org/blog/2013/03/what-is-happiness-five-characteristics-of-happy-people/)

We all know money can’t buy happiness, but it clearly can to a certain point, after which you get diminishing returns. Regardless, what sorts of spending choices correlate with happiness?

1) Manage money well – think before you spend/act – Don’t act/spend compulsively. Good Humanist advice for life.

2) Spend your money on experiences, not things. Experiences give you memories. Stuff gives you a crowded house.

3) Focus on your happy memories, not the unpleasant ones – this seems obvious.

4) Happy people catch the emotions of others, both the good and the bad. The thing is, by paying attention to other people, you feel more connected and this helps you be more happy.

5) Happy people live in a great community. This section has my favorite quote of the article

“A person is happiest when three basic psychological needs are satisfied: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.”

Autonomy, competence, and relatedness. I would agree with that – though the challenge is how to find the right balance between autonomy and relatedness. For me Humanism is a reminder to seek out that balance.

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