USA: Some People, It Seems, Are Just Born Happier!

PITTSBURGH (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), July 19, 2006: Happiness: What is it good for? Test your happiness inventory. If you're happy and you know it, leave this report immediately. Trying to figure out whether you are happy will only lead to depression and more global warming. If you are unhappy, jot this down: Don't bother winning the Powerball lottery, because after you get the yacht, the Hummer with gun mounts and the 102-inch wall TV, you'll eventually wind up just as miserable as you were before. So says Jonathan Haidt in an exploration of happiness in the Washington Post by Bridget Bentz Sizer. Haidt, author of "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom," says, "We all have a biological set point that predisposes us to happiness." In other words, some people, it seems, are just born happier than others. By Peter Leo