As an immigrant to Canada, Ali says she knows a lot of people who also left family and friends behind in their home countries and she sees how losing those social connections impacts them.
But a recent review of research on the subject suggests that despite decades of scientific studies, experts still don’t know whether some of the most common happiness-boosting strategies — such as socializing — actually work.
They began by searching phrases such as “scientifically proven ways to be happier” on Google and looked at the activities recommended within the links in the first 10 pages of results.
“If you’re somebody who, for example, works out every day and really enjoys it — absolutely, you should stick with it, and if you find that it makes you happy, that’s fabulous,” said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at UBC.
The review’s lead author, Dunigan Folk, says that while people shouldn’t stop doing what makes them happy, the findings are important for those who sink time or money into trying to feel good.
“It can be frustrating if you’re trying something that at least the consensus suggests is strongly scientifically backed and it doesn’t work for you, and that can lead to feelings of hopelessness,” said Folk, a PhD student in psychology at UBC.
The original article contains 1,606 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This summary suggests all the researcher did was a google search. This is not true. Researcher only did a google search to identify the keyphrase, then surveyed the result relating to these keyphrases.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
As an immigrant to Canada, Ali says she knows a lot of people who also left family and friends behind in their home countries and she sees how losing those social connections impacts them.
But a recent review of research on the subject suggests that despite decades of scientific studies, experts still don’t know whether some of the most common happiness-boosting strategies — such as socializing — actually work.
They began by searching phrases such as “scientifically proven ways to be happier” on Google and looked at the activities recommended within the links in the first 10 pages of results.
“If you’re somebody who, for example, works out every day and really enjoys it — absolutely, you should stick with it, and if you find that it makes you happy, that’s fabulous,” said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at UBC.
The review’s lead author, Dunigan Folk, says that while people shouldn’t stop doing what makes them happy, the findings are important for those who sink time or money into trying to feel good.
“It can be frustrating if you’re trying something that at least the consensus suggests is strongly scientifically backed and it doesn’t work for you, and that can lead to feelings of hopelessness,” said Folk, a PhD student in psychology at UBC.
The original article contains 1,606 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This summary suggests all the researcher did was a google search. This is not true. Researcher only did a google search to identify the keyphrase, then surveyed the result relating to these keyphrases.
Paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01651-4