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Data mining grads happy in their work

In the ongoing quest to annotate the obvious and increase publication tallies, it has been confirmed that who you hang out with can affect your mindset. If your social contacts are happy then there's a good chance you too will be happy, which begs the question: why do people blog?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Happiness is contagious, researchers reported on Thursday.

The same team that demonstrated obesity and smoking spread in networks has shown that the more happy people you know, the more likely you are yourself to be happy.

And getting connected to happy people improves a person's own happiness, they reported in the British Medical Journal.

"If a social contact is happy, it increases the likelihood that you are happy by 15 percent," Fowler said. "A friend of a friend, or the friend of a spouse or a sibling, if they are happy, increases your chances by 10 percent," he added.

A happy third-degree friend -- the friend or a friend of a friend -- increases a person's chances of being happy by 6 percent.

"But every extra unhappy friend increases the likelihood that you'll be unhappy by 7 percent."
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Comments

  1. You could easily assume, based on news media reports, that medical research consists entirely of correlation=causation errors...

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  2. I think the Reader's Digest/6 'clock news "shaggy dog" story is entirely supplied by armies of psychology/sociology grads doing earnest Honours/Masters projects based on dubious correlations and various other abuses of powerful statistical packages.

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  3. So it's settled then, avoid leftists and socialist and you'll be happy and successful. After all aren't they always whining about something and angling for a free meal. :)

    ReplyDelete

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