Do vacations make you happy?
This interesting blog post in the NYTimes argues that although vacations can make you happy, it is actually anticipating a vacation and planning for it that makes people happiest.
Given the results of a study conducted by Dutch researchers, the article suggests that the actual travel itself might be stressful, and that upon returning to work, people find that the large volumes of work they need to catch up on end up canceling out the effects of the vacation! To maximize the boost in happiness that anticipating vacations can bring about, the author suggests breaking up a 2-week vacation into two 1-week trips at different times of the year.
This article baffled me because it flies in the face of a lot of research on happiness that I have read. A lot of research seems to suggest that experiences such as trips can have lasting benefits, far beyond the short-term happiness boost of buying a new consumer good. Also, trips with significant others and family seemed to bring people together and strengthen relationships.
A lot of research I read previously also suggests that, unlike the purchase of consumer goods, the memories of a trip will seem happier and happier with the passing of time. We tend to forget the stressful occurrences and fights and see everything through rose-tinted glasses that make us look back on the experience even more favorably than we originally saw it.
Perhaps this was the problem with the research study they report on here: The researchers asked about the trip immediately after the subjects of the study came back. Their memories of the stresses of the trip, airports, etc. were all very fresh on their minds and they were just getting back to a big pile of accumulated work... the results might have been very different if the questions were asked under different circumstances, or a while after the people returned from their trip!
Personally, I have found that the memories of trips I have taken, whether alone or with friends and loved ones, remain some of my happiest memories. Perhaps it varies from person to person? I definitely have a a bit of a travel bug, being a Sagittarius and all... what do you guys think?
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| Could there be anything happier than this? |
This interesting blog post in the NYTimes argues that although vacations can make you happy, it is actually anticipating a vacation and planning for it that makes people happiest.
Given the results of a study conducted by Dutch researchers, the article suggests that the actual travel itself might be stressful, and that upon returning to work, people find that the large volumes of work they need to catch up on end up canceling out the effects of the vacation! To maximize the boost in happiness that anticipating vacations can bring about, the author suggests breaking up a 2-week vacation into two 1-week trips at different times of the year.
This article baffled me because it flies in the face of a lot of research on happiness that I have read. A lot of research seems to suggest that experiences such as trips can have lasting benefits, far beyond the short-term happiness boost of buying a new consumer good. Also, trips with significant others and family seemed to bring people together and strengthen relationships.
A lot of research I read previously also suggests that, unlike the purchase of consumer goods, the memories of a trip will seem happier and happier with the passing of time. We tend to forget the stressful occurrences and fights and see everything through rose-tinted glasses that make us look back on the experience even more favorably than we originally saw it.
Perhaps this was the problem with the research study they report on here: The researchers asked about the trip immediately after the subjects of the study came back. Their memories of the stresses of the trip, airports, etc. were all very fresh on their minds and they were just getting back to a big pile of accumulated work... the results might have been very different if the questions were asked under different circumstances, or a while after the people returned from their trip!
Personally, I have found that the memories of trips I have taken, whether alone or with friends and loved ones, remain some of my happiest memories. Perhaps it varies from person to person? I definitely have a a bit of a travel bug, being a Sagittarius and all... what do you guys think?
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