London - The young and the old are experiencing completely different emotions when they say they are happy, researchers have found.
For the young, around 60 percent of happiness is about excitement - and for children, the two things are virtually inseparable.
In contrast, as we get older we associate 80 percent of happiness with contentment.
The results come from a study of different age groups by Professor Cassie Mogilner, of the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Mogilner, who carried out the research, said: “We are talking about two distinct types of happiness, one associated with peacefulness and one associated with being excited.
“Whereas younger people are more likely to associate happiness with excitement, as they get older, they become more likely to associate happiness with peacefulness.”
The difference appears to come from the varying degrees of importance placed on the future compared to the present.
Younger people, generally more interested in the future, base their happiness more on excitement, said Mogilner.
Meanwhile, older people place a higher value on the present, and so contentment tends to be a greater source of happiness for them.
Mogilner added: “The research does not determine a relationship between age and levels of happiness.
“However, it does identify a relationship between age and the meaning of happiness.
“When a 20-year-old and a 60-year-old express feeling ‘happy,’ they are likely feeling quite different things.”
Mogilner, of the University of Pennsylvania, ran five studies involving different groups of people - one group aged in their teens, one in their 20s, and others in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
She and her team used a complicated computer program to analyse millions of blogs written by people in each of the age groups.
The software analysed words related to happiness and other emotions.
The researchers also completed a survey to measure participants’ definitions of happiness and volunteers listened to a calm or energetic song and then indicated how they felt.
Participants were asked what they would spend a gift of money on.
Researchers coded those responses based on whether they were excitement-focused, such as a Nintendo Wii, or calming-focused, such as “a bubble bath”.
Throughout the different research tests, the results showed a fairly consistent shift in types of happiness.
Mogilner, a professor of marketing, said it was important to consider how people of different ages define happiness when trying to improve their wellbeing.
“We should also bear in mind how our age affects the way we view happiness and not confuse it with becoming unhappy.”
She added: “People should expect the things that make them happy and their experience of happiness to change.
“They should not be surprised or attribute these changes to life becoming less happy.”
The results are published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. - Daily Mail