Two new Australian research shows that looking optimistically into the future helps to achieve happiness . Paul Frijters, author of one of the studies, worked with a sample of 10,000 Australians for nine years to come to the conclusion that people feel better if they hope for long-term positive things to happen . "Contrary to what we usually believe, human beings tend to think that the future will bring us a pleasant surprise," says the scientist, who published his results in the Journal of Economic Psychology .
Both current "real" health and expectations about our future health affect our moods, conclude the researchers, who have also surveyed 17,000 Chinese to probe their levels of happiness and optimism when thinking about the future. In this Asian country, the data shows that more than 65% of the people who live in rural environments are happy or very happy, but that only 56% of the "urban planners" declare themselves happy. Furthermore, on average, the Chinese are as happy as many Europeans, despite high levels of poverty. Frijters says the high levels of happiness in China can be attributed to "extremely high" expectations about how their lives (and income) will improve in the future.
