Smiling In Groups (broadcast Friday, December 5th, 2008)

If you're happy, you make your friends happier, and that makes their friends happier, according to new research published this week in the British Medical Journal. Using data from the wide-ranging Framingham Heart Study, researchers mapped the flow of happiness through social networks and found that happiness can spread up to three layers deep through a network -- while sadness was less likely to spread. We'll talk with one of the researchers behind the study. Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests

James Fowler
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, California

Related Links

• Washington Post: Happiness Can Spread Among People Like a Contagion, Study Indicates
• WebMD: Happiness Is Contagious
• NPR: Happiness: It Really Is Contagious

Segment produced by:Molly Ashford

Stories for
Friday, December 5th, 2008

• Climate Update
• Physics for Future Presidents
• Smiling In Groups
• The Superorganism

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