Happiness | featured news

Julia Shaw hit traffic pay dirt earlier this week when she took to Slate to argue that twenty-somethings should follow her lead and get married now. Shaw got married at 23, and it seems to have worked out well for her. Amanda Marcotte responded by throwing some cold hard data on that argument, noting that women who marry later are less likely to get divorced and earn more, on average, than their earlier-marrying counterparts.

Oral sex is good for women's health and makes you feel happier, according to a study which studied the effects of semen's 'mood-altering chemicals'. The State University of New York study - which scientists carried out via survey rather than through practical experiment - compared the sex lives of 293 females to their mental health.

A study being released today shows the United States may be on top when it comes to acquiring wealth, but it doesn't measure up as well when it comes to happiness and life span, MSNBC is reporting.

While UN 'World Happiness Report' results found that richer countries are happier than poorer ones, individual wealth bolsters happiness only in a limited way.

The happier you are, the better, right? Not necessarily. Studies show that there is a darker side to feeling good and that the pursuit of happiness can sometimes make you . . . well, less happy.

Our overall happiness is apparently in decline. How do we know? It's on Twitter. A team of mathematicians from the University of Vermont analyzed 4.6 billion Twitter messages worldwide over 33 months. They assigned happiness grades to more than 10,000 of the most common words, crunched all the numbers and plotted them on a graph that shows a gradual downward slope during the past year and a half or so, through mid-September.

A new survey by the jobs site CareerBliss.com finds that employees with higher salaries are happier with all aspect of their work life, not just their compensation.

2011 Happiness Challenge: For those of you following the 2011 Happiness Project Challenge, to make 2011 a happier year - and even if you haven't officially signed up for the challenge - welcome! This month's theme is Self-control. Last week's resolution was To increase your self-control, boost your energy level.

Why our kids’ success — and happiness — may depend less on perfect performance than on learning how to deal with failure.

What makes people happy? The question, which has been debated by philosophers for centuries, now is being tackled by international bureaucrats and the results are interesting.