Happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality, research suggests

[progressoid]

A study of a million UK women, published in The Lancet, has shown that happiness itself has no direct effect on mortality, and that the widespread but mistaken belief that unhappiness and stress directly cause ill health came from studies that had simply confused cause and effect.

Life-threatening poor health can cause unhappiness, and for this reason unhappiness is associated with increased mortality. In addition, smokers tend to be unhappier than non-smokers. However, after taking account of previous ill health, smoking, and other lifestyle and socio-economic factors, the investigators found that unhappiness itself was no longer associated with increased mortality.

The lead author, Dr Bette Liu, now at the University of New South Wales, Australia said: "Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn't make you ill. We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a ten-year study of a million women."

...http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151210031212.htm

[TexasProgresive]

1. Maybe not but the quality of life has to be better

for those who are happy to be alive v. those who wish they were dead.

[progressoid]

2. That seems like the extreme.

I'm not dismissing the benefits of being happy over unhappy, but I don't think being unhappy means you wish you were dead.

[TexasProgresive]

3. Dial it back a bit, then

I'd still take moderately happy in life than less so.

[Xipe Totec]

4. People who are unhappy change the world

People who are happy have no reason to do so.

[Warpy]

5. Unhappy people might not live forever but it sure seems like it

whereas the happy, peppy people who do their level best to make them feel like shit will always feel like their lives were cut short.

[SheilaT]

6. It's hard to argue with the science,

but I still find this hard to believe.

I've gotten so I just won't spend any more time than I must with unhappy, complaining people.