Business

In Utah people are happiest
by Zuzana Zelenakova

That is what results from the latest research at least. It supports the idea that in states where people are better financially secured and more educated they are also happier. We are talking about generalizations here, of course. Wealthy states can provide more comfort and possibilities to their residents. Also greater amount of free minded people such as artists or gay people contributes to the well-being of others. With such freethinkers around you are less ashamed or afraid to express your true self and your genuine feelings and opinions. The happiest states according to the study are the Mountain states and West Coast. On the tail many Southern states can be found. "W! e can only make generalizations about groups of people," said study researcher Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in England. "These results don't say wealthy people are happier than unwealthy people, (or that) people who live in areas where people are wealthy are happier." The data used in the study were collected from more than 350,000 people in 2008. The top ten states in the study are: Utah, Hawaii, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, Massachusetts, California and Arizona. "Our research shows that happy individuals are on average healthier and live longer, have higher incomes, better social relationships and are better citizens. Therefore, aiming to increase the happiness in one state is a valid goal," says Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, referring to the states at the bottom of the list. Residents of the happier states tend to be more educated as said before, and this fact results in greater health awareness of these ! people. Better informed about various health problems they are! healthi er. They are also more tolerant as the study shows and have more creative jobs in general, such as for example architecture, arts, design work and others. That results from higher education level too.

related story (sgx15869): http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091110/sc_livescience/...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With! global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 2:56 PM