To be more specific, the research found some correlation between the type of people with whom we tend to hang out when we experience a certain type of mood. For example, they found that when we feel happy, we go out of our way to meet strangers. But when we feel sad, we turn to our friends and loved ones.
The study’s authors provide this portrait of what their results mean: If someone were especially unhappy at noon on a Saturday, that person would be almost two times more likely to see a friend that afternoon than if he or she were especially happy at noon.
Meanwhile, if that person were particularly happy, his or her odds of interacting with a stranger that afternoon would go up by 20 percent. Those interactions might then feed on each other, with strangers making the person uncomfortable and less happy and close friends cheering him or her up again—and make the person eager to spend time with more strangers.
These results, as the researchers mentioned, only show correlation and not causation which means that these events or patterns of behavior do not necessarily follow one after the other. So say, if a person were expecting to meet someone new, they might try to pump themselves up to prepare for the interaction.
-via Kottke
(Image credit: Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash)