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அம்மா சொன்னது உண்மையா? Yeppudi - Tamil - Roy Naveen - Self Development  Our cultures give us a lot of advice about how to find happiness. Science, however, suggests that much of that advice just isn‘t right.   Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor of psychology and best-selling author of "Stumbling on Happiness," assess his mother's recipe for happiness.  "mom was partially right" in suggesting three keys for happiness: marriage, money, and children.  "Married people are happier than unmarried people. They are healthier, live longer, have more sex," and do better on nearly every indicator of happiness, Gilbert noted during his lecture titled "Happiness: What Your Mother Didn't Tell You."  Gilbert pointed out that the quality of a marriage is, unsurprisingly, closely connected to one's level of happiness. On average, marriage "makes you happier for eight to 15 years," making it a worthwhile "investment," but happiness levels may diminish over time, Gilbert said. Of course, "staying in a bad marriage" makes people unhappy, he said, but people in bad marriages "get much happier after divorce."   Gilbert offered the audience a Cheshire-cat smile before delivering his findings: "Of course money buys happiness," he said. "A little money can buy you a lot of happiness, though a lot of money buys you only a little more happiness."   The interplay of money and happiness is subject to diminishing marginal returns, noted Gilbert, who showed a graph revealing a correlation between the two increases at lower income levels and lower returns at higher levels. .  He then suggested that people with higher incomes aren't spending their money on the right things. Time spent resting, for example, the dream of so many working people, simply doesn't deliver happiness. "People are happiest when the mind is engaged," Gilbert said, whether talking, creating. "People are happier when they give money away rather than spending it on themselves."   Gilbert then discussed children, mom's last ingredient for happiness. While people might refer to them as "bundles of joy," said Gilbert "they're not a source of happiness." He displayed a bar graph showing that childless adults are much happier than parents. "Once people have kids, there's a downturn in happiness," he said, which isn't reversed until the kids move out. "The only symptom of empty nest syndrome," Gilbert said, chuckling, "is nonstop smiling."  So why do people speak so joyously about their children?  "Of course we love our kids," said Gilbert. "I never said don't have kids," but the scientific data is tough to refute. Mom's advice on kids may thus leave something to be desired.  Gilbert concluded his good-natured deconstruction of mom's happiness formula with a final word: "Maybe your mother doesn't know everything about happiness, but call her anyway." While our mothers never considered backing up their theories of happiness with scientific data, Gilbert put his mom's recipe under a powerful microscope, offering insights, surprises, and plenty of thought-provoking science.