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cultural fusion
February 2009 
Happiness is Contagious!
Yvette
Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study
Objectives To evaluate whether happiness can spread from person to person and whether niches of happiness form within social networks.Design Longitudinal social network analysis.
Setting Framingham Heart Study social network.
Participants 4739 individuals followed from 1983 to 2003.
Main outcome measures Happiness measured with validated four item scale; broad array of attributes of social networks and diverse social ties.
Results Clusters of happy and unhappy people are visible in the network, and the relationship between people’s happiness extends up to three degrees of separation (for example, to the friends of one’s friends’ friends). People who are surrounded by many happy people and those who are central in the network are more likely to become happy in the future. Longitudinal statistical models suggest that clusters of happiness result from the spread of happiness and not just a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals. A friend who lives within a mile (about 1.6 km) and who becomes happy increases the probability that a person is happy by 25% (95% confidence interval 1% to 57%). Similar effects are seen in coresident spouses (8%, 0.2% to 16%), siblings who live within a mile (14%, 1% to 28%), and next door neighbours (34%, 7% to 70%). Effects are not seen between coworkers. The effect decays with time and with geographical separation.
Conclusions People’s happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected. This provides further justification for seeing happiness, like health, as a collective phenomenon.Source One
Source Two
Your are invited to spread some happiness
When I learned that a colleague of mine, Sherri Thompson of Viola's Babygirl's Ventures, LLC, had a project being released on December 11th I knew we had to celebrate! The fact that this project, a music CD distributed through children's hospitals, shared my birthday inspired me to share my Birthday Wish with anyone willing to accept a bit of magic birthday wishing dust. We'll also hear a few tracks from the Dream On! Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute CD - which you may have heard discussed in the previous show. (If you haven't yet, do listen to that one) As the chance to have some other surprise call in guests took shape this show started to look more like an online party. Let's roll with that.....Join us for a Happy Birthday Celebration at 12pm EST
Access: Public
whoo hoo … I just knew it and now we have scientific proof … Hope you don’t mind if I post a link to your blog on the Gaia Peace Festival … happening 25 July 2K9 … its purpose: a world full of local events to raise happiness on the earth’s grid.
Cheers!
peace & harmony,
elaine
‘freedom must be exercised to stay in shape!’
Absolutely!! Please do help spread the word. This is something people need to be discussing and pondering.
Would love to learn more about the Festival…..going over to check out the link. Thanks for sharing!
All the best,
Yvette