You know that nice feeling you get when you volunteer for a cause you really believe in or help a friend figure out a dicey dilemma? Turns out, it comes with an added bonus: Feeling like you’re making a difference has a healthy impact on how your genes express themselves, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For the study, researchers looked at two sources of wellbeing: The first, called hedonic wellbeing, stems from the pleasure you get from a satisfying yet superficial experience—getting a massage or eating some really delicious food, for example. The second, eudaimonic wellbeing, is a little more substantial: It comes from thinking that your life has a purpose and that you’re making a contribution to society. All happiness might look the same on the outside, but researchers decided to examine how the two types of wellbeing impact you on a cellular level.
For the study, researchers looked at two sources of wellbeing: The first, called hedonic wellbeing, stems from the pleasure you get from a satisfying yet superficial experience—getting a massage or eating some really delicious food, for example. The second, eudaimonic wellbeing, is a little more substantial: It comes from thinking that your life has a purpose and that you’re making a contribution to society. All happiness might look the same on the outside, but researchers decided to examine how the two types of wellbeing impact you on a cellular level.
Not All Bliss Is Created Equal:
It turns out that the cellular response to hedonic wellbeing isn’t so healthy—the researchers found that it was associated with increased expression of genes involved in inflammation and decreased expression of genes involved in antiviral responses and antibody synthesis. But the way genes expressed themselves in association with eudaimonic wellbeing was the opposite—a much healthier response, says Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D., the lead study author and a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The researchers didn’t look into why this is the case, but they suggest one potential reason this could be happening: “Think about in terms of food,” says Fredrickson. “We all need food to survive, and yet we have cultivated these outrageous confections of sugar and fat that really indulge our taste buds but don’t give us the nutrients we need.” So just as a delicious slice of cake might fill you up without really providing any nutritional value, watching The Real Housewives might make you feel happy without really providing any nourishment.
The researchers didn’t look into why this is the case, but they suggest one potential reason this could be happening: “Think about in terms of food,” says Fredrickson. “We all need food to survive, and yet we have cultivated these outrageous confections of sugar and fat that really indulge our taste buds but don’t give us the nutrients we need.” So just as a delicious slice of cake might fill you up without really providing any nutritional value, watching The Real Housewives might make you feel happy without really providing any nourishment.
No Indulging Allowed?
Don’t cancel your next massage appointment just yet. Both types of wellbeing make people feel less depressed, according to the study findings. What’s more, they aren’t mutually exclusive, says Fredrickson, who is also the author of Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become. As long as you’re focusing on eudaimonic forms of happiness, there’s no need to toss hedonic approaches to the curb altogether. “It’s not that you want to avoid hedonic approaches to wellbeing,” says Fredrickson, “You just don’t want to be without the eudaimonic ones.”
So that friend who’s having a rough day? Take her out to ice cream—and feel free to treat yourself to a cone while you’re at it.
So that friend who’s having a rough day? Take her out to ice cream—and feel free to treat yourself to a cone while you’re at it.
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