Drop a dime; cheer someone up. That seems to be the conclusion from a study mentioned in an article in the New York Times. Apparently, people who were asked to photocopy a piece of paper before answering a "happiness" questionnaire, reported greater satisfaction with life if they found a dime on the copy machine than those who did not find a dime as they waited for the machine to spit out a piece of paper.
Here's the relevant quote from the article:
Happiness seems fairly cheap to manipulate. In one experiment, subjects were asked to answer a questionnaire about personal satisfaction after Xeroxing a sheet of paper. Those who found a dime lying on the Xerox machine reported substantially higher satisfaction with their lives.
So that got me thinking. Perhaps the elusive happiness could be achieve not by pursuing the random dimes, but by giving away dimes. I think there was some book a few years ago, all about "random acts of kindness," that had a similar theme. Do something "nice" for someone you don't know, and without seeking any credit, or thanks.
What if more people started giving away dimes, say one every day? Just place the dime where someone is likely to find it. It is like giving a little bit of happiness to someone, for no reason at all.
That got me wondering, what other kinds of things make people happy? What kinds of things can ordinary people do to bring some happiness into this world? Much has been said about the lack of a call for sacrifice during this time of war, for anyone other than the military and their families. If our politicians are not going to make the hard call and ask all Americans to contribute to the war effort, should they at least ask people to do something to bring a little happiness to others.
I'm not jumping on Obama bandwagon here, but is there a politics of hope that has not yet been tapped into? So, two questions:
What makes you happy?
What would you be willing to do to make some random stranger happy, without hope of return?