A new study suggests that happy people—far from being self-centered or disengaged—are more willing to tackle social problems. There’s a stereotype about people seeking happiness—that all they care about is themselves. They look at the world through rose-colored glasses, and so they refuse to see suffering. If we want to motivate people to care about righting social wrongs, the thinking goes, then we must stoke people’s anger and fear. Now a new study refutes that narrative. According to the study’s findings, happier people seem to be more likely to take social action than their less happy peers.
Researchers surveyed three different groups of people to see how generally happy they were, then gauged how much they cared about a particular social issue. They also had people report on actions they’d taken in response to the issue, their future plans to take action, and, in some cases, their willingness to sign up on the spot to participate in social action. The ...
Blog about social awareness and health