A research study from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego shows that happiness spreads through social networks, sort of like a virus, meaning that your happiness could influence the happiness of someone you’ve never even met.

Happiness, the researchers found out, is influenced not just by the people you know, but by the people they know.

Another study, published earlier, also found that smokers were more likely to give up cigarettes when their family, friends, and other social contacts stopped smoking.  The study on how social networks affect mood was designed to  determine whether happiness spreads through social networks in a similar way.

They concluded that the happiness of an immediate social contact increased an individual’s chances of becoming happy by 15%, Fowler says.

The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as the spouse of a friend, increases the likeliness of becoming happy by 10%, and the happiness of a third-degree contact — or the friend of a friend of a friend — increases the likelihood of becoming happy by 6%.

The association was not seen in fourth-degree contacts (the friends of friends of friends of friends).

Having more friends also increased happiness, but having friends who were happy was a much bigger influence on happiness.

Read more on how to increase your happiness st WebMD.

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