Your Genes Determine A Third of Your Happiness
Except for a brief moment in those teen years, I’ve always been a relatively optimistic person. I can’t say I’m always happy, but I generally believe things will turn out alright. I suppose I should thank my parents because according to a recent study, happiness is determined by:
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Genes – one-third to one-half of a person’s feelings of satisfaction may be due to their genes.
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Major life transitions and events – accounts for one third of a person’s variability in happiness
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Daily or momentary events – the remaining one-third might be explained by annoying co-workers or children’s tantrums
Today, I’d say that almost 100% of my happiness was determined by the events of the day. Maybe if I just go to bed, I’ll wake up a happier person since I’ll momentarily be able to forget everything and just let my genes lead the way.
Discovery Channel, February 20, 2007
Tags: anger, happiness, genetics, genes, genome, dna, diseases, illness, health
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] You may have heard the news yesterday that carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by genes, not overuse (then why do so many office assistants get…sigh…who are we to question a study). Well, evidently, you can blame your happiness – or lack of it – on your parents, too. So, parents, on top of being lame, nerdy, totally not cool, a dorky dresser, using slang – like – so wrong, and just generally being out of it, you are also responsible for your child’s future grumpy reaction to the Tivo being broken. [...]
[...] Over at Genetics and Health, I do a breakdown of happiness: genes, life events, and daily events. Of course I’m blaming my genes for my disposition. [...]