SOUL + BODY: What's Healthier than True Bliss?

When researchers at the University of Virginia, the University of Illinois, and Michigan State University compared blissfully happy people (10 on the 10-point life satisfaction scale) to mostly happy people (8 or 9 on the 10-point scale), they found something interesting: a significant downside to happiness. Specifically, blissful people earned significantly less money, reported lower educational achievements, and had fewer political engagements than their less happy counterparts. The researchers also found that the blissfully happy people weren’t as healthy as the less happy people.
University of Illinois psychology professor Ed Diener, Ph.D., explains: “Happy people tend to be optimistic, and this might lead them to take their symptoms too lightly, seek treatment too slowly, or follow their physicians’ orders in a halfhearted way. To be successful in several areas of life — such as income, career, and conscientiousness — it’s best to be mostly or moderately happy.”
Why don’t blissfully happy people achieve as much as their less happy counterparts? They’re less inclined to change their behavior or adjust to external changes, even if the opportunity exists. Blissfully happy people may be happy with the way things are.
Diener found that the survival rates of people diagnosed with serious illnesses are not great if they’re blissfully happy. In fact, blissful people may even be less likely to survive than mostly happy people because they don’t worry enough about issues that affect their health and well-being.
So, if you’re “only” an 8 or 9 on a 10-point life satisfaction scale, you may not really want to get happier. You’re likely to be healthier and more engaged just the way you are.

Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen