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September 12, 2008

Strange But True!

Q. Across the life cycle, who should be happy about the recently publicized “U-shaped curve of happiness” and who might be unhappy?

A. Obviously, there are many inputs at play here: Yet the amazing thing is the regularity and predictability of happiness reports, based on surveys covering 2 million people in 80 nations, from Bangladesh to Sweden to Chile, reports the “University of California-Berkeley Wellness Letter.” The key finding is that people tend to begin their young lives feeling relatively happy but then midlife crises can undermine this and despair can peak. This happiness low point typically hits men at about age 40 and women at age 50. Then comes the remarkable rebound: “People in their sixties and seventies, if healthy physically, tend to be as happy as young people.”


 
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