HOW YOUR BUSINESS NETWORK CAN BE YOUR SOURCE OF HAPPINESS

Did you know that happiness is contagious? A recent study found when you surround yourself with happy people your happiness increases.

From 1983 to 2003, scientists from UC San Diego and Harvard University studied 4,739 people to identify happiness clusters within social groups. They found happiness flows through social networks up to three degrees of separation. Interesting, unhappiness does not spread through social networks to the same extent.

The researchers found distance and time influences happiness. When you becomes happy, a friend living within one mile has a 25 percent increased chance of becoming happy, your spouse an 8 percent increased chance, and a next door neighbor, 34 percent.

"But the real surprise came with indirect relationships. Again, while an individual becoming happy increases his friend’s chances, a friend of that friend experiences a nearly 10 percent chance of increased happiness, and a friend of *that* friend has a 5.6 percent increased chance—a three-degree cascade."