there has been a lot of talk around last week's NY Times article Strangers May Cheer You Up (and thank you to the dozens of people that sent me the article).
but even more interesting … and buried mid-way through the article … is that "people take emotion cues from their own gender" according to Nicholas Christakis (physician at Harvard Medical School and author on the reported study).
if that is true, it could be really interesting in marketing. do people more heavily weigh over queues from their own gender too?
(Summation: read the study above if you want to get a better insight on how to make society happy)
A debunking of the NYT article on happiness being contagious:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/is-happiness-contagious/
I agree, if someone is smiling and has a good vibe, it’s easy to get in the same mood and enjoy the good energy.
Same here. When I’m feeling down, I like to head to the local food court at my local mall, especially during the holidays as most of the people there tend to be happy. It is a nice little pick me up.