Published 28 January 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b292
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b292

Letters

Happiness networks

What about social politics?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Fowler and Christakis use the example of illness as a potential source of unhappiness for patients and those around them.¹ I’m glad that they say potential, but my concerns, as described in Bowling Alone,² begin to mount about this kind of research to find the holy grail of happiness.

Trying to essentialise happiness, who experiences it, and how it is obtained or passed on—these normalising tendencies—will inevitably lead to prejudice and assumptions. In this case, people may avoid other people with "problems" because some people may automatically be seen as sources of social unhappiness. Indeed, much research on carers of ill people already uses the term burden to describe the ill person’s needs in relation to the carer without understanding their relationship and questioning the use of a value laden term. It is only a small step on with a few assumptions about people being happier associating with happy . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX

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