Happiness Can Trump Illness
Being Happy Isn't Just for the Healthy, Study Shows
WebMD News Archive
Feb. 10, 2005 -- As devastating as illness can be, it doesn't have the power to permanently steal every ounce of happiness. But healthy people sometimes overlook happiness, while their ailing peers are more attuned to it.
That's what Jason Riis and colleagues found in comparing 49 kidney dialysis patients with 49 healthy people. Riis, now research assistant at Princeton University, was a University of Michigan graduate student when he worked on the study.
The kidney patients were just about as happy as healthy participants -- and they were more aware of their own happiness, too.
The Happiness Experiment
The dialysis patients had end-stage renal disease, a chronic condition in which the kidneys don't work properly. Most patients need dialysis sessions three times per week. Each session lasts three hours. Patients can often participate in normal activities, but they usually have a strict diet and can feel tired if they miss treatment for several days, say the researchers.
Each patient had been on dialysis for at least three months. They were compared with healthy people of the same age and gender. All were given personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as Palm Pilots to carry for seven days.
The PDAs beeped at random times throughout the day, quizzing participants about their feelings at that moment. The goal was to create a series of emotional snapshots.
Participants also imagined themselves in someone else's shoes. Healthy subjects predicted how they would feel if they needed dialysis. Kidney patients had the reverse question, pondering how freedom from dialysis and kidney problems would affect their mood.
The kidney patients weren't any unhappier than the healthy people.
"They do not appear to be much, if at all, less happy than people who do not suffer from kidney disease or from any other serious health condition," write the researchers in The Journal of Experimental Psychology.
What's more, healthy people slightly understated their moods, shortchanging their happiness.
The dialysis patients didn't do that. Their happiness estimates were right on track. Apparently, they had largely adapted to their condition, say the researchers.
The kidney patients weren't deluded. They knew their condition was much worse than that of healthy people. But they didn't seem to be exaggerating their moods, say Riis and colleagues.