Obsessed with the pursuit of happiness? Be cautious — overthinking about it might affect happiness. While it is important to strive for happiness, constant obsession, overthinking, and concerns about one's happiness can affect well-being, a study revealed.
People who value happiness highly are often found to be less happy. To understand why, researchers of the latest study looked at two aspects of valuing happiness. The first is how strongly someone views happiness as a key goal, which measures the aspiration to happiness. The second is how much they worry about their current happiness, which indicates concern about happiness.
The researchers then tested their hypothesis using three experiments conducted on a large sample size involving more than 1,800 participants. The sample involved participants from Yale University students, community members from Denver and Berkeley, California, and online studies with participants from the United States and Canada. They were assessed on their beliefs about happiness and tested for psychological well-being and depressive symptoms.
The results showed that unlike previously thought, the pursuit of happiness is generally harmless. However, being overly concerned about current happiness can lead to negative feelings about happiness, which can reduce overall life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and a greater chance of depressive symptoms.
"These findings suggest that highly valuing happiness is not inherently problematic; however, concern and judgment about one's happiness can undermine it," the researchers wrote in the study in the journal Emotion.
The researchers also noted that worrying about one's happiness was linked to greater negativity about positive events.
"Thinking too much about one's own level of happiness could be related to fears about not measuring up or not being as happy as other people. Having high expectations for one's happiness can be detrimental because it makes it more difficult to achieve the level of happiness that we are expecting from a positive event," lead researcher Felicia Zerwas said in a news release.
"There are plenty of societal pressures, at least within the United States, which encourage the fallacy that people must feel happy all of the time to achieve greater well-being. Overall, allowing yourself to experience your emotions, whether they are positive or negative, with an accepting attitude could be a useful tool for pursuing happiness and increasing well-being," Zerwas said.
