We’ve all heard the saying Happy Wife, Happy Life. But science and research actually shows that it may be more like Happy Friends, Happier You. 

Studies show that behavior is influenced three degrees out. Meaning, you are affected by the whims of friends of friends of friends — and similarly, they by you.

Political views, weight gain, smoking and even that very very important thing, happiness, are all influenced by strangers. And having happy friends and relatives appears to be a more effective predictor of happiness than earning more money.

Listen in as I dig deeper into the research on how the happiness of not just our friends, but strangers affects our happiness. 

Drink of the Week:  The Happy Bastard

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We've all heard the saying happy wife, happy life.

But science and research actually shows that it may be more

like happy friends, happier.

You.

Welcome to episode 1 0 2 of this shit works a podcast dedicated to

all things, networking, business development, and relationship building.

I'm your host, Julie Brown.

And today I am discussing how your friends' happiness affects you.

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

At full service branding, marketing PR and communications agency

with team members in Boston.

Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

Visit them@nickersoncos.com.

I recently read an article and then times magazine titled the science of karma

three steps to making it work for you.

I was originally looking at this When I was doing research for episode

99 of this podcast, but I found the research so interesting that instead

of rolling it into the karma episode, I decided to dedicate this episode.

To the findings in the article.

The article discussed research that has been done on social networks.

And this research shows that karma might be quite real, but

not in the way we think about.

About it, not in the traditional sense of we do good.

We get good.

It's more like the six degrees of separation idea.

Because studies showed that the people who surround us dramatically affect our

behavior without us even realizing it Like really not realizing it because we

often don't think about our connections past the first connection as being able

to influence us but the study shows that behavior our behavior is influenced three

degrees out So you are affected by the whims of friends of friends of friends

And similarly they buy you The article goes on to say that political views

weight gain smoking and even that very very very important thing happiness Are

all influenced by strangers Like how can this be Here is a direct quote from the

researchers Our own research has shown that the spread of influence and social

networks obeys what we call the three degrees of influence rule Everything we

do or say tends to ripple through our network Having an impact on our friends

one degree our friends friends two degrees and even our friends friends friends

Three degrees The three degrees rule applies to a broad range of attitudes

feelings and behaviors and it applies to the spread of phenomena as diverse as

political views weight gain And happiness

When it comes to the direction of happiness.

The article goes on to say Nath, medical.

Analyses of the networks.

It suggests that a person.

It is about 15% more likely to be happy.

If a directly connected person.

At one degree of separation is happy.

And the spread of happiness.

Doesn't stop.

There the happiness.

Eunice effect for people at two degrees of separation, the friend's friend is 10%.

And for people at three degrees of separation, the friend

of a friend, Have a friend.

It is about six.

6%.

So the happiness of people.

You have never met and may never meet.

Can and will still affect.

Affect you.

It's a little.

Fucked up.

Right?

Like now I'm like, okay, everyone get fucking happy.

Cause you're all affecting my shit.

Three degrees out.

When we think about happiness, we all think money will make

us happy, but it's not true.

We'd be better off investing in the happiness of our friends, then working

our asses off to make more money.

An excerpt from the study says an extra $5,000 in 1980 $4, which corresponds to

about $10,000 in $2,009 was associated with only a 2% increased chance of a

person being happy So going back to that happiness effect having happy friends and

relatives appears to be a more effective predictor of happiness than earning more

money And the amazing thing is that even people who are three degrees removed

from you whom you may never meet can have a stronger impact on your personal

happiness than a water of hundreds in your pockets so spending time making friends

has a higher happiness roi than time spent Making money Go back to this If the

higher amount of money It's associated with a 2% increase and then we know that

first degrees make us 15% more happy and secondaries make us 10% more happy and

third degrees make a 6% more happy All of those affect us more than more money

So we need friends around us that are happy and if you're not sure how to make

new friends go back and listen to episode 38, where i interviewed dr marissa franco

about how to make friends as an adult And then relisten to episode 99, about the

10 ways to put good karma out into your network remember with happiness affects

spanning three degrees of separation there's a good chance making knows people

in your daily life happy will flow back to you So introduce your friends to

other friends so they can help make new friends Make introductions in your network

so you can have people in your network making new friends by strengthening your

network and overall happiness of it you can reap the benefits three degrees out

you can selfishly increase your chance of being consistently happy by making other

people in your life Happy It's fucking great All right Onto the drink of the

week which is appropriately named the happy bastard It's a turn on an older

cocktail called the suffering bastard but because we're all going to be three

degrees of happy going forward we're going to be happy bastards here's what

you're going to need One ounce of gin.

Three fourths hours.

Of brandy a quarter ounce of st germain A Half ounce of ginger syrup a half ounce

of fresh squeezed lemon juice and one and a half ounces Uh, fever tree cucumber

tonic Combine all ingredients except the tonic and a cocktail shaker with ice and

shake shake shake shake shake shake shake and then strain into a collins glass

over ice and top the tonic and garnish with a lemon wheel All right friends

that's it for this week thanks so much for being here now go out and make your