Why we enjoy Christmas

I love the Christmas season–everything from the decorations to the TV specials. And now, a new study reveals that so do most other people–or, at least, they enjoy the things that Christmas entails.

How people choose to use their time, and how they experience their day-to-day activities and settings, is of interest to everyone from medical researchers looking into the health consequences of stress to economists interested in measuring the well-being of society.

Until now, the best way to gather this data has been through something called experience sampling. Study participants have to record where they are, what they are doing, and how they feel several times a day. One benefit of this method is that it captures how people really feel at the moment they’re undergoing a particular experience, rather than capturing how they think they felt (or, worse, think they should have felt) hours or days later. But experience sampling is expensive, a lot of work for participants, and tends to miss uncommon or brief events.

An interdisciplinary team of psychologists and economists from several universities, led by Daniel Kahneman, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, has come up with a new way to evaluate daily life experience. Called the Day Reconstruction Method, it’s less time-consuming and intrusive.

In their sample study, 909 employed women were asked to construct a short diary of a particular day on which they had worked. They were told to think of the day as though it were a movie, a continuous series of scenes. They were asked to name each scene to help them remember it, to write down the approximate start and end time of each, and then what they were doing (by checking one or more of 16 activities), where they were, who they were with, and how they felt (by rating 12 “affect descriptors,” some positive, like “warm/friendly,” and some negative, like “depressed/blue,” on a scale of 0 to 6).

The researchers’ purpose in conducting the study was to create data that could be compared to the results of similar studies that used experience sampling (which proved their Day Reconstruction Method was just as accurate), but the results of their study were interesting in their own right.

Among the most popular activities, all ranking 4 or more on the 0 to 6 scale , were socializing (4.59), relaxing (4.42), praying/worshipping/meditating (4.35), eating (4.34) and watching TV (4.19)–all of which, of course, peak over Christmas. (Heading the list was “intimate relations,” at 5.10, which one hopes is more than just a Christmas-time pleasure.) The only non-Christmassy thing on the list was exercise, which ranked 4.31.

Down at the bottom of the list were things that one doesn’t have to do so much of over the Christmas season, if one is lucky–commuting (3.45), working (3.62), housework (3.73), and using the computer/email/Internet (3.81). In the middle of the pack were shopping, preparing food, talking on the phone, napping and “taking care of my children.”

The most popular “interaction partners,” all scoring 4 or more, were friends (4.36), relatives (4.17), spouse/significant other (4.11), and children (4.04). Being alone (3.41) scored lowest; just above that was being with the boss (3.52), co-workers (3.76) and clients/customers (3.79)–which explains why Christmas parties with friends and Christmas dinner with family are so enjoyable, whereas the office party, sometimes, isn’t.

Some of the findings are counter-intuitive. When asked in general terms, people usually say their children are their greatest source of joy–but in the study, taking care of children and spending time with children both finished in the middle of the pack. The study’s authors believe that’s because, no matter how much you love your children, sometimes they can be a pain–and the Day Reconstruction Method captures those times.

Not-so-surprisingly, the researchers found that a high level of tiredness had a big impact on how people felt about daily activities–women who slept poorly enjoyed their day as little as the typical person enjoyed commuting, while those who slept well enjoyed their day as much as the typical person enjoyed watching TV.)

But, again somewhat counter-intuitively, general life circumstances, from job security to earning power, had little impact on how they felt about specific activities.

Money, it seems, can’t buy happiness. Friends, family, food, church and TV (OK, OK, and intimate relations and exercising) are the things we really enjoy.

And this is the best season of the year to enjoy them!

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2004/12/why-we-enjoy-christmas/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Easy AdSense Pro by Unreal