Happiness can be compatible with being materialistic under the right circumstances.
“People say that they enjoy their work, but…people are happier doing almost anything other than working.”
Do you know someone who always agrees, no matter what they really think?
Givers tend to focus overly on how modest the gift is, while the recipient concentrates on the warm feeling they get.
A lower subjective than actual age is linked to a number of benefits.
The activity may raise feel-good neurotransmitters and boost mood.
A sense of purpose is powerful as it is linked to living a longer, healthier and happier life.
These films help people make sense of problems in life and accept the human condition.
These films help people make sense of problems in life and accept the human condition.
Meaningful films help people cope with life’s problems, research suggests.
People report that movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Up and Schindler’s List, help them to make sense of problems in life and accept the human condition.
Other films rated as meaningful include Hotel Rwanda and Slumdog Millionaire.
While these films are not necessarily uplifting, they are all moving and poignant.
And that is the key to a meaningful film: having an emotional range, being inspirational and containing both happy and sad moments.
People did not report these types of benefits when they watched other well-regarded but not so meaningful films like Catch Me If You Can and The Big Lebowski.
Mr Jared Ott, the study’s first author, said:
“Meaningful movies actually help people cope with difficulties in their own lives, and help them want to pursue more significant goals.”
For the study, over 1,000 people rated different films — 20 of which were chosen for being highly meaningful, while the other 20 were not (see below for the full list).
Professor Michael Slater, study co-author, explained the results:
“We found that people felt better able to make sense of difficulties in their own life when they recalled a movie that focused on values that were important to them.”
Films which were more meaningful, people said were more likely to help them:
People thinking about meaningful films were also more likely to agree with statements like:
The research also showed the importance of individual values.
People found more meaning in films that espoused values they themselves believed in.
Mr Ott said:
“That happened even when the movie was classified as one of the less meaningful films.
The findings suggest why many people see movies as more than just entertainment.
Some films may help people cope and grow through difficult periods in their life.
And people may recognize this effect years after they have seen a particular movie.”
Here is the full list of more meaningful films, in no particular order:
The less meaningful films used in the study:
The study was published in the journal Mass Communication and Society (Ott et al., 2021).
What gives your life meaning and how can that be enhanced?
It is possible to have too much free time for your mental health.
It is possible to have too much free time for your mental health.
When people have about two hours spare time each day they are happiest, a fascinating study finds.
People with between two and five hours spare time a day are equally happy as those with two hours spare.
This suggests that the ‘time poor’ should try and carve out around two hours of free time each day to increase their happiness.
People who have seven hours spare time each day, though, are markedly less happy and satisfied with their lives than those with two hours spare.
This may partly be because people with too much time feel unproductive due to wasting it.
The solution to too much free time is finding and pursuing a purpose.
When people feel purposeful, it makes them happier.
The findings contradict what many people might imagine: that more spare time is always linked to happiness.
While having two hours is much better than one hour or none, more than this is not linked to higher levels of happiness.
Dr Marissa Sharif, the study’s first author, said:
“People often complain about being too busy and express wanting more time.
But is more time actually linked to greater happiness?
We found that having a dearth of discretionary hours in one’s day results in greater stress and lower subjective well-being.
However, while too little time is bad, having more time is not always better.”
The results come firstly from a set of surveys in which the associations between free time and happiness among thousands of Americans were tested.
These clearly showed that some free time was linked to more happiness, but only up to a point.
Secondly, in a set of experiments people were asked to imagine they had a low (15 minutes), moderate (3.5 hours) or high (7 hours) amount of free time each day.
The results showed that people felt happiest and more productive with a moderate amount of free time each day — around 3.5 hours, or so.
Low amounts of free time were linked to feeling stressed and high amounts to engaging in unproductive activities like watching television and using the computer.
Dr Sharif said:
“Though our investigation centered on the relationship between amount of discretionary time and subjective well-being, our additional exploration into how individuals spend their discretionary time proved revealing.
Our findings suggest that ending up with entire days free to fill at one’s discretion may leave one similarly unhappy.
People should instead strive for having a moderate amount of free time to spend how they want.
In cases when people do find themselves with excessive amounts of discretionary time, such as retirement or having left a job, our results suggest these individuals would benefit from spending their newfound time with purpose.”
The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Sharif et al., 2021).
Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.
