Thaindian News

London, Apr 18 (ANI): A study has showed that middle-aged people are the grumpiest and the reason for it is because happiness follows a U-shaped curve during a person’s lifetime.

Bert van Landeghem, 29, an economist at Maastricht University in Belgium, said that satisfaction with life begins to recede in the late 20s and does not recover until well past 50.

The reason for this is because as young adults, people are carefree and full of hope for the future, and by the time they have crossed their 50s, they have come to terms with the trials of life.

The study found “a substantial dip in happiness during the middle of people’s lives is the equivalent to becoming unemployed or losing a family member”.

While van Landeghem said happiness did return with age, he warned that older people did not actually recapture the spirit of their youth. They simply learnt to be satisfied with their lot.

“A U-shaped happiness curve does not necessarily imply that a 65-year-old prefers his own life to the life of a 25-year-old,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

“Both the 25-year-old and 65-year-old might agree that it is nicer to be 25 than to be 65. But the 65-year-old might nevertheless be more satisfied, as he has learned to be satisfied with what he has,” he said.

The research by van Landeghem will be presented at the Royal Economic Society annual conference at Royal Holloway, the University of London, this week. (ANI)