Don't confuse correlation with causality
Unhappy people live as long as happy people
Copper news
British researchers conducted a large-scale study in which more than a million women participated. The authors, led by Bette Liu, have shown that happiness does not prolong life (Happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality (Bette Liu et al., (Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study).
The observation of the women continued for ten years. Three years after the start of the study, the participants, whose average age at the start of the experiment was 59 years old, answered the questionnaire in which they were asked to assess their health, stress and happiness. Every sixth woman reported that she felt unhappy – the state of health of such participants in the experiment was worse than those who considered themselves happy.
After the end of the study, scientists estimated the mortality rate among those who considered themselves happy and women who felt unhappy. These indicators turned out to be similar in both groups, that is, the feeling of happiness does not affect life expectancy in any way.
Scientists also plan to conduct a study in which not only women, but also men will take part.
The researchers also refuted the popular opinion that negative emotions, unhappiness and stress lead to diseases. They explained that in this case, cause and effect are simply confused – not adversity leads to health problems, but poor health makes people feel more unhappy.
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10.12.2015