Wealth equality, antidepressants, and happiness
http://www.usefulscience.org/podcast/3
This week, all of our topics come from the happiness section of our site. We learn about how the wealth of others affects your happiness, the effectiveness of anti-depressant drugs, and why being happy all the time may not make you happy all the time.
Show Notes:
- ‘Emodiversity’ (feeling a balance of different emotions) has been found to be predictive of better mental and physical health.
- People who cried while watching a movie experienced a more negative emotional state initially, but within 90 minutes recovered to an even better mood than before watching the movie.
- Pixar's Inside Out
- Feeling poorer than one's peers decreases health and happiness (for example, in measures of life expectancy, diet, or exercise). Reducing conspicuous consumption may make communities happier and healthier.
- Canadian Thanksgiving
- The Perfect Salary for Happiness: $75,000 (Wall Street Journal)
- An analysis of over 6500 depressed patients found that antidepressant drugs were effective and consistently superior to placebo at reducing depressed mood.