The Perks of Sharing Your Positive Experiences

Published in Detodo/La Optimista, Ibiza’s good news only newspaper.

In a fine example of science offering a poignant message to us all, ‘A boost of positive affect: The perks of sharing positive experiences’ is the name of a compelling study recently carried out by US psychologists. Researchers carried out five studies, over the course of four weeks, recording the mood of participants after they had shared a positive experience with a friend or partner. The results were compared with participants who just wrote about said positive experiences, or who merely shared more neutral information with a friend.

According to the study: “Those who shared their positive experiences increased in positive affect, happiness, and life satisfaction, over the course of four weeks.” In further studies, it was recorded that those who additionally received an “active-constructive” (aka enthusiastic) response to good news from another person, expressed more positive affect than participants in all other conditions; indicating that the response of the listener is crucially important. Co-author of the report, Frank Fincham, said: “If you seek happiness, it can become very elusive, whereas if you naturally share the good things in your life, happiness will follow. The problem is that we tend to share what’s going on badly in our lives, not capitalising on sharing the positive.”