The United States are home to some of the oddest records, attractions and - more recently – scientific studies. Although the purpose of some studies is most serious, some of the results are paradoxical and are quickly inducted into pop-culture, resulting in extremely comedic anecdotes. One of the most recent studies has analyzed what outer factors influence our mood and, consequently, our happiness. 

According to the study, it seems that if you cross paths with a cheerful neighbor, you yourself will be more cheerful than if both you and your spouse woke up in excellent moods that morning. The study was conducted for a period of 20 years, on significantly large group of people. Happiness has proven to indeed be contagious, even more than has been thought so far. According to Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, who is a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, to be published Friday in BMJ, a British journal, “Your happiness depends not just on your choices and actions, but also on the choices and actions of people you don’t even know who are one, two and three degrees removed from you. There’s kind of an emotional quiet riot that occurs and takes on a life of its own, that people themselves may be unaware of.

Emotions have a collective existence — they are not just an individual phenomenon.” His co-author, James H. Fowler, an associate professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, assessed that their extensive research had revealed that “if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket.”