The Secret of Happiness

Happiness is an incredibly complex emotion, and it is also one of the most sought-after things in human history. People do drugs, take risks, and will go to any lengths just for brief glimpses of happiness. Some people claim that money leads to happiness, others look to meditation to grant them happiness. However, none of these things will truly lead to happiness (though meditation does have several positive effects on the psyche). Instead, novel scientific studies point to something completely out of our control: genetics. Our genes determine how happy we are.

To understand this, we can take a look at an increasingly common mental disorder: Major Depressive Disorder, commonly known as depression. Examining depression through the Diathesis-Stress model of psychology, we can deduce that certain people have underlying predispositions to depression. These predispositions are purely genetic. However, under certain stressful situations or environments, the people who are genetically inclined towards depression will develop the disorder. However, when in a calmer, happier environment, these people may never develop depression at all.

Similarly, happiness is largely based on a genetic predisposition. No matter what happens in a person's life, they are most likely to return to their genetic baseline of happiness. For instance, one study found that mere months after winning the lottery, people were at the same level of happiness as those who never won the lottery. Alternatively, people who have experienced extreme trauma are also able to return to their genetic baseline of happiness after the trauma. This ability to return to our genetically determined level of happiness, no matter what we have been through, is called hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation has allowed us to move past tragedies, but it has also hindered our increased happiness.

Luckily, our happiness is not completely out of our control. Although buying a new phone or taking a trip may not truly increase your overall happiness, some things can. One study shows that the most reliable way to become happier for any extended period of time is to do acts of kindness. In fact, numerous reliable studies have proven that people become happier after doing good things for others. Of course, there are other ways of becoming happier, but they have less of an effect or have a shorter time of effect on one's overall happiness level. Interestingly, one study revealed that certain, seemingly irrelevant habits such as changing your acts of kindness instead of repeating one makes you happier. In addition, simply changing your conscious thoughts can have a profound effect on happiness. Although genetics determines most of our happiness, much of our life is still under our control.