Happiness is Addictive
Scientists in Manchester claim it's true what they say - laugh and the world laughs with you.
Scientists in Manchester claim it's true what they say - laugh and the world laughs with you.
A study has found a good mood is infectious and researchers are looking at whether it can be used to beat depression.
It looked at the way feelings are transmitted through a population using methods normally employed to track infectious diseases.
They found having enough friends with a happy, healthy mood halved the chances of becoming depressed.
Dr Thomas House, one of the researchers from the University of Manchester, said: We know social factors, for example living alone or having experienced abuse in childhood, influence whether someone becomes depressed. We also know that social support is important for recovery from depression, for example having people to talk to.Our study is slightly different as it looks at the effect of being friends with people on whether you are likely to develop or recover from being depressed.
"This was a big effect that we have seen here. It could be that having a stronger social network is an effective way to treat depression. More work needs to be done but it may be that we could significantly reduce the burden of depression through cheap, low-risk social interventions.''
While being with people who were depressed presented no risk, having happy and contented friends was both protective and curative, said the scientists.
The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Dr House said: As a society, if we enable friendships to develop among adolescents (for example providing youth clubs) each adolescent is more likely to have enough friends with healthy mood to have a protective effect. This would reduce the prevalence of depression.''