Have any one of you ever felt “Happy” because your close friend’s nephew won a gold medal?
Has it ever happened that you have felt “Happy” when a person who you do not know directly but is an acquaintance of your friend has got success in some work?
Have you shared happiness on some ones success whom you are not directly linked or is not a direct contact to you but may be a third party contact?
What exact feelings did you have? What kind of physiological changes did you feel (if you felt any)?
I think a person’s happiness is relative to their psyche. Whether that is directed by a genetic trait or governed by the chemical makeup of their body is probably unknown. Autistic people’s happienes levels may operate differently due to their perception of their surroundings. Happiness by some of my observations seem to possess pariahal connotations due to their environment, home life, peers etc. Those people find happiness to be a foriegn, unobtainable grail. Something in their psyche has barred them from seeing aspects of life in which to be fondly viewed.
No, I can’t say I’ve ever been made happy by any of my friend’s nephews earning a gold medal. This makes a certain amount of sense, since I can’t recall that situation ever have having arisen.
All the time. Usually its the s/o of a friend of mine who is living cross-country so I haven’t met them, but I am happy because my friend is. There have also been times where I’ve crashed a fully-formed clique (I usually have a fairly wide circle of acquaintances) and there will be those semi-mythical figures that ‘everybody’ knows, save m’self of course because they moved on before I showed up. But I’ll be happy when I hear what happened to them, provided it is good.
I guess that would describe the second half of my answer to the second question.
What I described. Provided I ‘like’ the person (by reputation, of course).
Though I do agree with the overall thrust of your post, which is that we care more about those relationships that are close to us and that the more distant a relationship becomes the less intense the emotional bonds are. If, for example, #3 dealt with someone who I hadn’t heard of before that moment (so no reputation had been established), I would be absolutely indifferent to the news. Possibly even a little miffed that they were blabbing about someone who I didn’t know. So much less so if it is about someone with whom I share no relationship.
This is pretty much what I was thinking as I read the OP, that there’s a continuum of empathy that goes from the extreme of complete indifference toward the success of a total stranger, to being happier about another’s success than we would be about our own (for example when the other is a child or significant other).
I am glad to read your reply.
Well i am carrying out some findings about happiness which might be enlightened with your point of view.
Thank you so much.
Let us suppose that the person is not a stranger but may be a friend of a friend of a friend which makes the relation to have a degree 3.
So do you think the degree of relation matters(how many people are connected to you before the person, whose happiness you are sharing) or the blood relations/nodes of family tree, matter?
The closer a person is in your acquiantance the happier you are? Is it like that?
Can you provide more insight into your perspective?
Thank you for your insight. I just had a question.
Is there some measurable or observable differences from these people you talked about who “find happiness to be a foriegn, unobtainable grail” and others who act normal to happiness?
I don’t know if it can be measured, but it is fairly obeservable. There is a particular person who posts on this site who perceives this world provides nothing but a reason to ‘suffer’. I have never observed anything from posts of his I read as being nothing but miserable. I have not once seem him espouse to happiness of any kind.