How to Live Happy; Be Educated, Old and Don’t Have Kids
The angriest Americans exhibit the following traits;
1. They are under 30 years old.
2. They are uneducated.
3. They have kids.
A new study has revealed that while anger is a common emotion in all people, those who fall into the above group are more likely to be angry more often then those who aren’t in those groups.
It makes sense to us. Apart from the obvious financial concerns of those who are young and uneducated, having kids when you don’t have a lot of options or money has got to be tough. Worrying about someone else’s life when yours isn’t going as well as you like, that can’t be easy.
But it makes us think of a conversation we had with a friend of ours. She is a substance abuse counselor, and in talking about what makes her job rewarding/difficult, she told us that invariably it is the stupid clients who are the most frustrating. Ok, that might be a little crass. But it’s true.
Smarter people are better able to understand their own emotions and can adapt or change the way they react to things more readily than those who aren’t smart. The less intelligent feel the same things (be it anger or anything else) but aren’t as well equipped to handle them.
(Photo courtesy dboy’s flickr page.)