Unhappy people watch more television, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time on reading, socialising and religion, a new American study shows. Researchers at the University of Maryland analysed 30 years worth of data from time-use studies and social attitude surveys and found that spending time watching TV may cheer people up briefly but leave them dissatisfied in the long run. That means, says co-author and sociologist John P Robinson, that as the economy worsens and people lose their jobs, TV viewing might increase significantly and also sleep. However, happiness would take a plunge.

The study, which aimed to find out how various activities correlate with happiness, found that unhappy people watch about 20 per cent more TV than very happy people, after taking into account education, income, marital status and other factors with a bearing on happiness and TV viewing. One reason seems to be that… click here to read whole article and make comments