Study Finds Happiness is Contagious

New research from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego suggests that happiness is influenced not only by the people you know, but by the people they know.

The study showed that happiness spreads through social networks, sort of like a virus, meaning that your happiness could influence the happiness of someone you've never even met.

Study co-author, James H. Fowler, PhD, of the University of California-San Diego says:"We have known for a long time that there is a direct relationship between one person's happiness, but this study shows that indirect relationships also affect happiness. We found a statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness, but between your happiness and your friends' friends' friends' happiness."

The study concluded that the happiness of an immediate social contact increased an individual's chances of becoming happy by 15%, Fowler says.

The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as the spouse of a friend, increases the likeliness of becoming happy by 10%, and the happiness of a third-degree contact -- or the friend of a friend of a friend -- increases the likelihood of becoming happy by 6%.

So, according to this study, it pays to seek out people who are happy when you're looking to make friends--that is, if you want to be happier.