Walk This Way: Acting Happy Can Make It SoResearch Shows People Can Improve Their Mood With Small Changes in Behavior
The Wall Street Journal
By Sumathi Reddy Nov. 17, 2014 5:34 p.m. ET
Uplifting Actions: Short bursts of exercise, putting a bounce in your step and talking to strangers can brighten your outlook. Linzie HunterHappy people walk differently than others, and scientists are finding that putting on a happy walk may give your mood a boost.
Research shows people’s mood affects how they walk. When people are happy, they tend to walk faster and more upright, swing their arms and move up and down more, and sway less side to side than sad or depressed people.
A recent study found that deliberately walking like a happy person can lift one’s spirits. And adopting the gait of a depressed person can bring on sadness. Scientists behind the study, which was published online in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry in September, hope to determine if a small change in outward behavior like how we walk could work in a clinical setting to help treat depression.
“There is a mutual influence between mood and body and movement,” said Johannes Michalak, a professor in the department of psychology and psychotherapy at Germany’s Witten Herdecke University and first author of the study. “There might be specific types of movements that are specific characteristics of depression and this feeds the lower mood. So it’s a vicious cycle,” he said.
A range of studies have found many little ways we can improve our mood, from talking to strangers to arranging a match between friends. Even abstaining from temptations such as chocolate can help boost our state of relative happiness by helping us appreciate experiences that are repeated in everyday life.
“There are these little doses of social interactions that are available in our day” that can brighten our mood and create a sense of belonging. “I don’t think people recognize this,” said Elizabeth Dunn, an associate psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, who co-authored a study last year of customers’ interactions with Starbucks baristas.
In the walking study, researchers at Queen’s University in Canada, working with the research team in Germany, had 39 undergraduate students walk on a treadmill at a steady pace while watching an interactive gauge displayed on a monitor in front of them.
The students were told to attempt different ways of walking until through trial and error they were able to move the gauge to the right. Moving the gauge to the right meant walking in a depressed manner for half the participants, and in a happy manner for the other half. They weren’t told what the gauge was measuring.
After several minutes of walking, the participants’ moods were tested using a standard measure. An experimenter read off 20 negative words, such as ugly, and 20 positive words, including happy. After walking for another eight minutes they were asked to recall as many words as they could remember.
People who walked in a depressed way remembered more negative words; a negative memory bias is considered a typical characteristic of depression. Those doing the happy walk remembered more positive words.
Dr. Michalak said a similar type of behavioral modification needs to be tested long-term in depressed patients to see if the procedure could be useful in treatment. Another study Dr. Michalak and other German researchers conducted with 30 depressed people, published in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy earlier this year, showed that those sitting in a slumped posture, which is typical of depression, recalled more negative words than other depressed people who were sitting upright.
Research has found people can cheer themselves up in many little ways.
A 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General found in a set of experiments that commuters who struck up conversations with strangers on trains and buses, and in taxi cabs and waiting rooms, reported greater well-being than others instructed to commute in their normal way or to remain disconnected from fellow travelers.
The study, involving about 100 commuters, also found participants were surprised that talking to strangers made for a more positive commute experience. They were also surprised that strangers were interested in talking with them, said Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and lead author of the study.
“I used to sit in quiet solitude on the train,” Dr. Epley said. “I don’t anymore. I know now from our data that learning something interesting about the person sitting next to me would be more fun than pretty much anything else I’d be doing then,” he said.
Talking to your local barista also can be uplifting. Dr. Dunn, of University of British Columbia, and colleagues randomly assigned about 60 people to one of two conditions at Starbucks. One group was told to be as efficient as possible with the barista and avoid unnecessary conversation. The other group was told to have a genuine connection, be it a smile, eye contact or brief conversation. Those making a social connection reported a more positive mood, greater sense of belonging and more satisfaction with their Starbucks experience. The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Matchmaking has also been linked in research with higher well-being. A series of four studies published earlier this year in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science also found that the more unlikely the match, the more rewarding it is for the matchmaker. The study included more than 100 college-age students who made matches among each other in a laboratory setting.
Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton, who co-authored the study, has also done research showing that making things oneself, engaging in rituals around eating and drinking, and going to religious services and the gym are little ways to increase happiness.
Not giving in to temptation seems a surprising way to increase relative happiness. Dr. Dunn co-authored a study that brought 55 people into the lab to sample chocolate. One group was sent home and told to avoid chocolate for a week and another got a big bag of fancy chocolate and told to eat as much they like. A third group received no instructions and served as a control.
A week later, the participants returned to sample chocolates again. Repeated experiences normally cause a decline in the pleasure people get from those experiences, and this was true for all the participants except those who had avoided the treat, Dr. Dunn said.
“People who gave up chocolate for a week were the only ones who basically savored the chocolate as much and got as much positive affect from it the second time as they had the first,” she said.
“There are these little doses of social interactions that are available in our day” that can brighten our mood and create a sense of belonging. “I don’t think people recognize this,” said Elizabeth Dunn, an associate psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, who co-authored a study last year of customers’ interactions with Starbucks baristas.
In the walking study, researchers at Queen’s University in Canada, working with the research team in Germany, had 39 undergraduate students walk on a treadmill at a steady pace while watching an interactive gauge displayed on a monitor in front of them.
The students were told to attempt different ways of walking until through trial and error they were able to move the gauge to the right. Moving the gauge to the right meant walking in a depressed manner for half the participants, and in a happy manner for the other half. They weren’t told what the gauge was measuring.
After several minutes of walking, the participants’ moods were tested using a standard measure. An experimenter read off 20 negative words, such as ugly, and 20 positive words, including happy. After walking for another eight minutes they were asked to recall as many words as they could remember.
People who walked in a depressed way remembered more negative words; a negative memory bias is considered a typical characteristic of depression. Those doing the happy walk remembered more positive words.
Dr. Michalak said a similar type of behavioral modification needs to be tested long-term in depressed patients to see if the procedure could be useful in treatment. Another study Dr. Michalak and other German researchers conducted with 30 depressed people, published in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy earlier this year, showed that those sitting in a slumped posture, which is typical of depression, recalled more negative words than other depressed people who were sitting upright.
Research has found people can cheer themselves up in many little ways.
A 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General found in a set of experiments that commuters who struck up conversations with strangers on trains and buses, and in taxi cabs and waiting rooms, reported greater well-being than others instructed to commute in their normal way or to remain disconnected from fellow travelers.
The study, involving about 100 commuters, also found participants were surprised that talking to strangers made for a more positive commute experience. They were also surprised that strangers were interested in talking with them, said Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and lead author of the study.
“I used to sit in quiet solitude on the train,” Dr. Epley said. “I don’t anymore. I know now from our data that learning something interesting about the person sitting next to me would be more fun than pretty much anything else I’d be doing then,” he said.
Talking to your local barista also can be uplifting. Dr. Dunn, of University of British Columbia, and colleagues randomly assigned about 60 people to one of two conditions at Starbucks. One group was told to be as efficient as possible with the barista and avoid unnecessary conversation. The other group was told to have a genuine connection, be it a smile, eye contact or brief conversation. Those making a social connection reported a more positive mood, greater sense of belonging and more satisfaction with their Starbucks experience. The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Matchmaking has also been linked in research with higher well-being. A series of four studies published earlier this year in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science also found that the more unlikely the match, the more rewarding it is for the matchmaker. The study included more than 100 college-age students who made matches among each other in a laboratory setting.
Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton, who co-authored the study, has also done research showing that making things oneself, engaging in rituals around eating and drinking, and going to religious services and the gym are little ways to increase happiness.
Not giving in to temptation seems a surprising way to increase relative happiness. Dr. Dunn co-authored a study that brought 55 people into the lab to sample chocolate. One group was sent home and told to avoid chocolate for a week and another got a big bag of fancy chocolate and told to eat as much they like. A third group received no instructions and served as a control.
A week later, the participants returned to sample chocolates again. Repeated experiences normally cause a decline in the pleasure people get from those experiences, and this was true for all the participants except those who had avoided the treat, Dr. Dunn said.
“People who gave up chocolate for a week were the only ones who basically savored the chocolate as much and got as much positive affect from it the second time as they had the first,” she said.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/walk-this-way-acting-happy-can-make-it-so-1416263697?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp
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