“Our happy friends make us happier!” — such a conclusion was made by the sociologist Nicholas Christakis, professor at Harvard University (USA), and the American political scientist James Fowler, after analyzing the data of a large-scale sociological study begun back in 1948.
Having studied the fate of several generations of its participants, including their friendships and family ties, the scientists found that 60% of the respondents can be confidently called happy people. Interestingly, they had significantly more happy friends, relatives, neighbors and buddies. The researchers also determined that each direct contact with «lucky people» increases the likelihood of personal life satisfaction by about 15%, second-level contact (friends of a friend) — by 10%, third-level contact (happy friends of friends of a friend) — by 6%. “We are all interconnected, like pieces of a patchwork quilt, and our emotional state depends on what happens on the neighboring patches,” Dr. Christakis smiles. We do not always have the opportunity to surround ourselves with exclusively positive people. But it is in our power to make those around us happier.