How the Happiness Habits Worked - The Results

Here is a summary of the results of our Happiness Habits Experiment. We think you'll agree, they show some pretty positive results for Happiness Habits being able to raise happiness levels, that they became habitual in many cases, that participants enjoyed them and are likely to carry on doing them. But - even when you know they work, it's hard to remember to keep doing them.

HAPPINESS FINDINGS

Happiness Habits raised happiness levels
Overall, carrying out daily Happiness Habits raised happiness levels for almost two thirds (62%) of respondents, with “Three Good Things” the most effective (65%), followed by “Smile” (58%) and “Fun To-Do Lists” (50%).

“You just can't feel too bad when you are smiling even if things seen awful, it changes you, I felt lighter.”

30% of respondents reported that all Habits combined affected their happiness levels, whilst 38% were not sure.

“Smiling and positive thoughts and keeping a record of the good stuff is a great habit - works for me :-)”

9 participants (24%) said that individual or the combined Habits did not affect their happiness levels.

“Doing the habits were natural for me but it is a great feeling to know that level of happiness can be changed for the better just knowing the keys.”

Happiness Habits were enjoyable
The vast majority of respondents (96%) found carrying out Happiness Habits enjoyable or quite enjoyable. “Smile” was the most enjoyed habit with 92% of those trialing it rating it as Enjoyable.

“Smiling more and consciously was particularly enjoyable. It had an immediate psychological and physiological benefit.”

"Spreading Happiness” was the second most enjoyed habit, rated Enjoyable by 81%.

“Doing something kind and helpful was wonderful. It made me very happy.”

96% of respondents who trialed “And Breathe…” rated it Enjoyable or Quite Enjoyable (in equal numbers).

“Breathing was very calming... It was very useful in stressful situations at work.”

Three is the happiest number of Habits
Comparing the number of habits respondents had chosen to work on with their opinions as to whether they would choose more or fewer Habits in another period, revealed that the majority felt that practising three Happiness Habits at a time was the optimum number to raise happiness levels.

Happiness Habits became habitual
The simpler interventions, in particular (such as smiling and affirmations), became embedded as habits for at least half of the respondents after three weeks of regular practice. Once more, “Simply Smile” scored highest, with 54% of respondents saying it had already become a Habit with them and the remaining 46% feeling it would do so in another three weeks. 50% of participants who practised “Three Good Things” and “Yes I Can” said these had become a habit with them. 40% felt “Yes I Can” may become a habit with further practice and 35% believed “Three Good Things” would become one. Over half of those who carried out “And Breathe”, “Fun To-Do Lists” and “Spreading Happiness” reported that these may become a habit for them in another three weeks. Only 9% of respondents across all Habits felt that some would never become habitual to them.

Simpler Habits were most popular
“Simply Smile” was the most popular Habit overall (for its simplicity, we suspect) followed by “And Breathe...” then “Three Good Things”. “Fun To-Do Lists” was the Habit fewest signed up to. No men opted to carry out “Yes I Can” – a habit of positive affirmations.

Remembering to do Happiness Habits
Many participants found it hard to remember to practise their Happiness Habits, even when it was clear to them that they worked to raise happiness levels. Whilst 42% of respondents found it Easy to remember to carry out some or all of their Happiness Habits, 22% found it Not Easy with the remaining 36% finding it only Fairly Easy.

The issue of remembering to practise (and therefore embed) Happiness Habits is crucial and may be more critical than our results suggest. Whilst 66 participants originally signed up to take part in the Experiment, only 37 completed and returned the survey. When reminded to return the questionnaire, several replied that they hadn’t remembered to do the Habits enough to be able to respond to the questions (despite the form stating that this was not a problem and would form part of the research findings), and did not do so.

“I forgot about the experiment so it didn’t really work for me. I do believe in spreading happiness so that came easily as did the smiling but the other parts just slipped my mind.”

Whilst 65% of respondents found remembering to “Smile” Very Easy, only 30% found remembering to “Breathe”, 25% “Three Good Things” (the hardest Habit to remember – although it was the Habit that made the most difference to respondents’ happiness levels) and “Fun To Do Lists” Easy. A few respondents said they had found ways of remembering to carry out their Happiness Habits:

“I used my diary to remind me of my three good things. Every day I would number 1, 2, 3, down but found myself going onto to no's 5, 6 and more sometimes. It gets a bit of a habit!”

“As for reminding myself, the list stays beside my bedside and I will continue using it every night. I’ve taken it on travels to other parts of the USA to continue the routine at night.”

Happiness Habits will continue and increase
Two thirds of respondents said they would definitely continue to practise their Happiness Habits and over half will adopt further Happiness Habits from the Experiment list or The Real Secret book.

“I firmly believe that making a conscious effort to become happier pays off. And this experiment has proved that, even if it has also proved that forming habits takes sustained effort.”

For the full results, download The Happiness Habits Report here

Spreading Happiness - Happiness Habit No. 4

What single thing will bring you the most happiness today?

It could be a much needed cheque arriving in the post. It might be successfully completing a challenging project. Or it may be the simple pleasure of a walk in the park with your dog. But the likelihood is that it will be some kind of communication with another person: appreciation from your boss, a phone call from a friend, being able to cheer up your child, or sharing a moment with your partner.

“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy  is to be happy yourself.”

Gretchen Rubin, writer

Every recent study of happiness shows that good relationships are fundamental to being happy and that happy people have better relationships.

Positive emotions are generated by good interactions with other people. During these interactions our brain responds with chemical responses such as the production of “feel good” hormones like dopamine and oxytocin. In an upward spiral, positive emotions then make us feel better disposed towards others, more empathic, helpful, open and loving.

Positive Psychology research has found that altruism is strongly correlated with happiness. Professor Martin Seligman commented on a study that linked happiness with altruism; he was surprised, because he thought that unhappy people would identify with the suffering of others and be more altruistic. But "findings on mood and helping others without exception revealed that happy people were more likely to demonstrate that trait [altruism]" (Seligman, 2002, p. 43). And likewise, altruism helps people to be happy. Seligman cites a range of evidence to show that there is a causal link between altruism and becoming happier in his book, Authentic Happiness (e.g. pp. 8-9). Jane Piliavin has also analysed studies which have looked at the effects of helping others, and concludes that, "on many levels - psychologically, socially, and even physically - one indeed does 'do well by doing good'" (Piliavin, 2003, p. 243). 

Richard Layard tells us that neuroscientific research shows that when we do kind things for other people the same areas of our brain light up as when we eat chocolate. What a bargain - and it's not even fattening!

"Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring

happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also.

To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it."

John Templeton, philanthropist (1912 - 2008)

Habit No. 4 of the Happiness Habits Experiment is "Spreading Happiness" and we ask participants to undertake some act of kindness, above and beyond their normal, kind activities, daily for three weeks. Amongst our first tranche of participants, this Habit is only the fourth most popular: coming after "Simply Smile", "Three Good Things" "And Breathe..." - but ahead of "Yes I Can!" and "Fun To-Do Lists". We very much look forward to finding out how effective those who signed up for it, found it.

Whether you have signed up or not to the Happiness Habits Experiment, think of some generous actions which you could realistically carry out each day over the next three weeks. They can be gifts of your time, energy, or effort, and don’t have to cost money; they could be small and impulsive, or they could involve serious input and planning on your part. They can be directed to people you know and love or to someone you find hard to get on with; to contacts or colleagues; to strangers in need or to charitable organisations. They should be actions different to or beyond those kindnesses you already do on a regular basis.

You can do something extra for someone you see every day, or you can reactivate a lapsed friendship by an act of unexpected giving. You can enjoy watching the surprise and pleasure of those you offer your gift to, or you could savour in your imagination the amazement and gratitude of someone you help anonymously.

If you want some ideas for Spreading Happiness, have a look on the Random Acts of Kindness website for inspiration. And there are more Happiness Habits in The Real Secret programme.

Post by Lucy

Piliavin, J. A. (2003). Doing Well by Doing Good: Benefits for the Benefactor. In C. L. M. Keyes and J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived (pp. 227-247). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press.

How to be happy - tips from recent research

It appears that people suffering with mild to moderate depression focus too much on the bad and the sad*, and that socially anxious people tend to remember negative rather than positive experiences*. When trained to shift their attention, both groups experienced a major improvement.

In the case of the research on depression, sad faces seemed particularly attractive to people with mild to moderate depression, whereas non-depressed people found neutral or happy faces more attractive. The question is whether the increased attention paid by depressed people to unhappy or sad themes is simply a byproduct of depression or might it be a cause?

Researchers looked at the question of whether biased attention towards sadness plays a maintaining role in depression and, more specifically, they looked at the question of  whether modifying the attention for sadness, by training participants to shift their attention toward neutral stimuli, could reduce depressive symptoms.

The study provided evidence for the first time that training attention away from unhappy or sad stimuli to neutral stimuli reduces depressive symptoms. In addition, these effects lasted beyond the duration of training. Perhaps most notably, these results provide additional evidence that, rather than being by-products or symptoms of depression, attentional biases towards sad themes play a causal role in the maintenance of depressive symptoms.

These findings worked with people with mild to moderate cases of depression, and those are also the people for whom anti-depressants often don’t work. Since we are all prone to episodes of mild depression, it may well be worth remembering to keep a tab on the amount of attention you pay to sad or unhappy events - and try to stop yourself.

In the study that looked at people who suffer from social anxiety, results showed that socially anxious individuals more easily forget socially positive words and experiences than do non-anxious individuals. It’s not that socially anxious individuals have fewer positive experiences than non-anxious individuals, it’s just that they appear not to recall them as readily.

Martin Seligman’s research is worth noting here. He found that the habit of writing down Three Good Things that went well each day increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for six months after the single week of testing.

So if you can get into the habit of writing Three Good Things that went well, and reasons - preferably to do with you - why they went well, even if you only manage it twice a week, you’ll have clocked up over Three Hundred Good Things that have happened to you in a year.

The first and last Steps of The Real Secret "Choose to be Happy" and "Smell the Roses" give you Habits that promote focusing on the positive and have been shown to raise happiness levels. Get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk in paperback or Kindle



* Tony T. Wells and Christopher G. Beevers (2010) Biased Attention and Dysphoria : Manipulating selective attention reduces subsequent depressive symptoms Cognition and Emotion, Vol. 24 (4)
* Chi-wen Liang et al., (2011) Absence of a positive bias in social anxiety: The application of a directed forgetting paradigm" Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, Vol. 42 (2)

Post by Annabel

Martin Seligman Talks about the Science of Happiness