Genetic Happiness

Researchers from the Varna University of Management, Bulgaria have established a correlation between a country’s happiness and the genes of its citizens. The study published in the journal ‘Happiness Studies’ reveals that those citizens who rate themselves happiest are likely to have a specific allele in their DNA, which is involved in sensory pleasure and pain reduction.

Researchers concluded this after using the data from the World Values Survey (2000–2014), the national representative that calculates average national percentages of happy citizens. They colluded this happiness to the presence of a–allele gene in the fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) gene variant rs324420 in a happy country’s citizens’ genes.

The a–allele gene was found in high proportions among the happy citizens of Sweden, West African nations such as Ghana, Nigeria and northern Latin American nations such as Mexico and Columbia whose citizens are of Amerindian or mixed Euro–American descent. On the other hand, Arab countries such as Iraq and Jordan and East Asian nations such as Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Taiwan who consider themselves least happy had the lowest prevalence of a–allele gene.