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A new study published in the Journal of Cities looked at how shopping centres function as social spaces in everyday life. “I wanted to understand what draws people to spend time there beyond shopping, how they use these places for social reasons, and how everyday social life unfolds in such settings,” study author Gry Rustad Pettersen told us. "At its core, the study explores whether shopping centres can function as informal meeting places that help people feel connected.” [More]

Having a higher level of trust in others as well as institutions may boost subjective well-being. Research published in Psychological Bulletin found that well-being and trust reinforce each other over time. [More]

Having optimism about the future may help people save more money. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who are optimistic tended to save more money and that was particularly the case for people in lower incomes. [More]

More than 33% of people aged between 50 to 80 feel lonely. Loneliness and isolation among this group has mostly returned to pre pandemic levels, but remains high. [More]

The United States has fallen out of the world’s top 20 happiest countries. The World Happiness Report revealed the US fell from number 15 to number 23, putting it out of the top 20 for the first time since the report was published in 2012. [More]

A new study published in PLOS One looked at reactions to macro-level shocks and re-examination of adaptation theory using Big Data “Our study wanted to determine whether two different types of macro-level shocks (lockdown – endogenous and the invasion of Ukraine – exogenous to the countries under investigation) affected happiness differently,” study author Stephanié Rossouw told us. [More]

Ever heard that laughter is the best medicine? Now science backs it up. Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK have found that both laughter and humor are important tools that can impact wellbeing, particularly in the workplace and in health related settings. [More]

What it means to be happy varies depending on where you live. Researchers from the University of California Riverside found that different questions need to be asked to gauge happiness in Asian and Western countries. [More]

A study from researchers at the University of Toronto found that those with suboptimal mental health died earlier than their counterparts with excellent mental health. Those who were in excellent mental health when the study started in the mid-1990s lived almost five months longer than their peers who were in poorer mental health. [More]

Though the divorce rate in the United States is 50 per cent and growing, and higher for second and third marriages, over 90 per cent of people in Western cultures still decide to get married by the age of 50. Why is the divorce rate so high? The influences on marital success are varied and many. What about the way in which people approach the important decision about whom they will spend their life with? Could that be having an effect? [More]