The Hobby / Happiness connection…
Sunday, October 8, 2023.
As we get older, and learn to truly not give a sh*t, it makes sense to make special note of research that make claims for my age cohort (over 65), that are what I describe as double-digit delights!
Here’s the major take away from a study conducted at the dawn of COVID; the mere act of indulging a hobby has been tightly correlated with greater happiness and fewer depressive symptoms in humans over 65, according to a huge freakin’ study.
Hobbies not only provide pleasure, they also satisfy and soothe to such an extent, that many humans experience a state of deep, engrossed, satisfaction.
How the study was conducted:
Data from 16 countries on 100,000 humans found that hobbies are directly linked to higher life satisfaction.
Humans with hobbies often go on to report that they have become not only happier, but also more satisfied with life.
This next part is super important. The researchers wanted us to know that it is not just happier humans who take up hobbies, but that the act of taking up a hobby in and of itself, is conducive to feeling happy and satisfied.
What do I mean by hobbies? pretty much what you think. I’ve already written about community gardening, but crafting, playing games, creating art, joining a club, volunteering, or even taking up a new reading genre, such as poetry, or fiction, if you’re a mostly non-fiction reader.
Humans with hobbies may have a depression risk that is 33% lower…
From a drone’s eye view, some humans are lucky enough to live in peaceful, happy countries. These folks are more likely to have hobbies in the first place. Furthermore, these hobbies are more likely to contribute to their happiness in those happy countries, the research found.
Other studies have suggested that taking up a hobby could reduce depression risk by as much as one-third (Fancourt et al., 2019).
Dr. Karen Mak, study co-author, said:
“Our study shows the potential of hobbies to protect older people from age-related decline in mental health and well-being.
This potential is consistent across many countries and cultural settings.
Of the four outcomes, life satisfaction was most strongly linked to hobby engagement.”
However, the percentage of people with hobbies varied considerably between the countries surveyed:
Around 95% of people in Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland, have hobbies.
51% of the humans in Spain do.
But only 38% of Chinese. China is not a “happy country.” These folks are highly stressed. I wonder if “lying down flat” is serving the function of a hobby? There is a new trend among young, unemployed Chinese. At night, they bring mats to the park and play cards with each other for hours.
In the United States, barely a smidge over half of American humans report having a hobby. In the UK, however, the number of humans with a hobby is just a smidge under 80%.
Why do hobbies bring such profound happiness?
Hobbies are pursuits that serve no function beyond our engrossed amusement. I’ve seen hobbies turn into businesses, but that was a by-product of a community of passion. In 1980, I met a man named John Sandusky. He was a manufacturer’s rep, and earned about 60K in that endeavor.
John was a passionate toy train enthusiast. He was an expert, buying and selling train cars and sets to other train enthusiasts. This was before the internet. I remember asking him how much money made doing that and he smiled… and said “about the same as I make working for Magic Chef (60K).” He called it his “accidental prosperity.”
Hobbies provide profound pleasure. They satisfy a deep psychological all humans know: to experience flow, deep absorption with work, or creative endeavors. Some hobbies may even offer meaningful social interactions.
From a neuro-science perspective, hobbies bring a boost of feel-good neurotransmitters, such as our old friend dopamine.
The dopamine helps to install a reward pathway positive feedback loop. Our hobbies beckon to us, and the neurotransmitters encourages us to return to them… despite the required time and effort required.
Dr. Mak said:
“Hobbies may contribute to life satisfaction in our later years through many mechanisms, including feeling in control of our minds and bodies, finding a purpose in life, and feeling competent in tackling daily issues.
Theoretical work suggests the relationship between hobbies and well-being may cut both ways—that people with better mental health may be more likely to take up a hobby, and persisting with a hobby may help us to retain improved life satisfaction.”
Final thoughts on hobbies…
I am deeply grateful for this study.
It isn’t everyday that we get robust data about easily adopted lifestyle choices like this. Hobbies pay an enormous neurological dividend.
But I also wonder if this data is a jumble of neurotypical humans with hobbies…and neuro-diverse humans with special interests?
Special interests are activities that may resemble hobbies at first blush. But special interests can sometimes present particular challenges in couples therapy. I’ll be covering the importance of special interests with neurodiverse couples therapy in my next post.
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Daisy Fancourt, Simon Opher, Cesar de Oliveira; Fixed-Effects Analyses of Time-Varying Associations between Hobbies and Depression in a Longitudinal Cohort Study: Support for Social Prescribing?. Psychother Psychosom 10 March 2020; 89 (2): 111–113. https://doi.org/10.1159/000503571
