Are you in a cranky mood? Do not look for the culprit in the gloomy winter cold, your dragging fatigue or your professional hassles. The real responsible for your mood and personal satisfaction would actually lie in your genes.
Researchers from the Varna University of Management in Bulgaria and the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong conducted a study on the satisfaction of people in countries around the world. They discovered that the genetic component would play more in the balance of the national happiness as socio-economic factors such as wealth, but also political stability and the prevalence of disease.
In fact, the more people have a certain variant of a gene, the “A allele”, the happier they will feel.
The study published in the journal Journal of Happiness Studies is the first to establish a correlation between national happiness and genetics. The participants in this large survey rated their level of personal satisfaction by saying whether they were “very happy, somewhat happy, not very happy or not happy at all”.
Mexico, the happiest country “genetically”?
Result: it is in Mexico that the inhabitants said they were the happiest, the country where the greatest prevalence of the A allele appeared in the population. Ghana, Nigeria, Colombia and Ecuador also achieved high happiness scores from genetics, regardless of the political and economic situation. Northern Europe was also characterized by a prevalence of the allele A.
Conversely, it is in Iraq, Jordan, Thailand, China and Hong Kong that the inhabitants have proved to be the least happy, because the least endowed with the famous allele A.
>> To read also: Unusual: happiness has a smell
For seniors, happiness is above all health
Happiness: 8 tips to be happier
