Guess I can stop feeling guilty about being a grouch when I first wake up, with an even lousier mood when having to cope with chirpy, cheerful "morning person" pests:
Does misery really love company?
An intriguing new study suggests that may be the case.
Researchers who study how people's sense of well-being varies from place to place decided to compare their findings with suicide rates.
The surprising result: The happiest places sometimes also have the highest suicide rates.
“Discontented people in a happy place may feel particularly harshly treated by life,” suggested Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England.
Or, put another way by co-author Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., those surrounded by unhappy people may not feel so bad for themselves.
Just kidding. I don't really feel even a twinge of guilt. It's natural when feeling miserable to seek out those even worse off than we are. This is another one of those "well, duh" studies.
Know that old question -- "Would you rather have the nicest house in the worst neighborhood or the worst house in the nicest neighborhood?" -- often used as a conversation starter? How about this one: Would you rather be the happiest person in the most depressing place or the most depressed person in the happiest place?
