14 DAY TRIAL // A 20 year-long study revealed that the happiness of just one person can affect a huge number of individuals for periods as long as one year. Their state of mind can influence their friends' and their friends' friends as well, spreading through social networks like an infectious disease. This proves that happiness isn't just the result of various self-helping techniques, like several books and audio tapes say, but, rather, a feeling that is triggered by us being human.
The new survey, conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of California (UC), in San Diego, followed the feelings of some 5,000 people over two decades, as well as the effects their happiness had on their friends and friends' friends.
"We've found that your emotional state may depend on the emotional experiences of people you don't even know, who are two to three degrees removed from you. And the effect isn't just fleeting," explains Nicholas Christakis, a Harvard Medical School professor, who, along with James Fowler from UC, co-authored the current study.
"We've found that while all people are roughly six degrees separated from each other, our ability to influence others appears to stretch to only three degrees. It's the difference between the structure and function of social networks," he says.
Another interesting find is the fact that people who are at the center of network clusters – namely those who are "popular"– are far more likely to be happy and spread positive feelings around, to their peers. The scientists also note that it takes about a year for the positive feelings to spread throughout networks in three degrees, as in from the "sources" to their friends, friends' friends and friends' friends' friends.
"Imagine an aerial view of a backyard party. You'll see people in clusters at the center, and others on the outskirts. The happiest people tend to be the ones in the center. But someone on the fringe who suddenly becomes happy, say through a particular exchange, doesn't suddenly move into the center of the group. He simply stays where he is – only now he has a far more satisfying sense of well-being. Happiness works not by changing where you're located in the network; it simply spreads through the network," Fowler concludes.