Happiness is Contagious

I just read this article in the New York Times about friends, social networks, and connectedness.

Two social scientist studied a group of friends over 4 decades and concluded that a lot of behaviors (smoking, obesity, happiness) are socially contagious.

The article is really long, but I thought it was well worth the time to read it.

What was most fascinating to me is that the behaviors are not just contagious to people you know, but to friends of friends, even three links away. If your husband's boss gets fat, you're more likely to get fat, too.

The other point I liked was that people who are in the middle of a social star (very connected) and not isolated, are more likely to be happy, and even when they're unhappy, they still stay connected. They're even hypothesizing that connectedness is somewhat genetic. Some people are just more likely to have lots of friends.

Oh, and that was another point. The more friends you have, the happier you are, because you have a greater chance to 'catch' happiness. So, for all of you wonderful friends out there, thanks for being a part of my happiness!