Happiness may be contagious…

...but what about misery?

It's generally known that surrounding yourself with happy people can make you happier.

But I've received the following informational gem from my gym. Did you know that happiness naturally spreads through social networks like a virus? In other words, your happiness can influence the happiness of someone you've never even met?

Apparently there is an actual statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness, but between your happiness and your friends' friends' happiness. Harvard Medical School and the University of California concluded that the happiness of an immediate social contact increases an individual's chances of becoming happy by 15%. The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as a friend's spouse, increases the likeliness of becoming happy by 10%, and the happiness of a third-degree contact, (the friend of a friend of a friend) increases the likelihood by 6%. Kinda cool! But…

If I'm still friends with my ex-boyfriend's friends (MB, not WF), and I'm happy, and his friends are happy, do we keep recycling the same happiness? Would it increase exponentially? Is there a limit? What about if my ex is Mr. Doomandgloom? Would that reduce my happiness? Ours friends' happiness? What about my sister's happiness, my sister's husband's happiness, or my sister's husband's best pal's happiness? Is the misery ruled out completely, or would the misery percentage increase, and how much? Would the original happiness level remain constant? If not, what kind of fluctuation would occur?

Nice job figuring the numbers, Harvard, but you've created a slew of questions. This requires further research about the Grumpies among us, and whether scientifically, misery really does love company…