Are you happy? Well don't try to be happier; you might become
less happy. That is the gist of a multi-cultural study published
this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The study by University of Virginia psychology professor
Shigehiro Oishi and colleagues at three other institutions
found that, on average, European-Americans claim to be happy
in general – more happy 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."
Oishi, a social psychologist who grew up in Japan and then
moved to the United States at 23, is interested in comparing
how people from East Asia and the United States respond to
the daily events of life.
He and his colleagues surveyed more than 350 college students
in Japan, Korea and the United States over a three-week period.
The students recorded daily their general state of satisfaction
or dissatisfaction with life, as well as the number of positive
and negative events they had during the course of each day.
The researchers found that the European-Americans needed
nearly two positive events (such as getting complimented or
getting an A) to return to their normal level of happiness
after each negative event, such as getting a parking ticket
or a lower grade than expected. The Koreans, Japanese and
Asian-Americans generally needed only one positive event to
make up for each negative event.
Oishi said that people who become accustomed to numerous
positive or happy events in their life are more likely to
take a harder fall than people who have learned to accept
the bad with the good. And because negative events have such
a strong effect when occurring in the midst of numerous positive
events, people find it difficult to be extremely happy. They
reach a point of diminishing returns.
This is why the extreme happiness people may feel after buying
a new car or a house, or getting married, can be rapidly diminished
when the payments come due or the daily spats begin. It becomes
a problem of ratio, or perspective.
"In general, it's good to have a positive perspective,"
Oishi said, "But unless you can switch your mindset to
accept the negative facts of everyday life — that these
things happen and must be accepted — it becomes very
hard to maintain a comfortable level of satisfaction."
His advice: "Don't try to be happier."
