Happy people A new study suggests that happy people avoid the trap of social comparison. Good leaders surround themselves with team members who are smarter than they are, experts say. They don’t let their ego get in the way of choosing the best people for the job. And the same might be true of happy people, too. According to a new study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, happy people are less influenced by social comparison—comparisons between themselves and others—when deciding who to spend time with. Like good leaders, they aren’t deterred from being around people who might seem smarter than them, and they reap the benefits of good company. In a series of studies, researchers invited Korean undergraduates to imagine they got a mediocre score on a test. Next, they envisioned receiving a text message from a friend, who either performed better on the test and had a happy disposition, or performed worse and was generally unhappy. Participants then reported whether they wanted to hang out with that friend, and what their mood would be after spending time with them. The happy participants—those who scored highest on their general levels of happiness—were more interested in spending time with the happy yet “superior” friend, and expected to be more chipper afterward. The unhappy participants showed no preference for either friend.
