Study: Religion Makes You Happy

What’s the secret to lifelong happiness? According to a recent study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, it’s getting involved in a church. Teams from the London School of Economics and Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that involvement in organized religion was more effective at producing “sustained happiness” than sports, political groups, charity work or continuing educational efforts. In a statement, one of the study’s authors explained, “The Church appears to play a very important social role in keeping depression at bay and also as a coping mechanism during periods of illness in later life.” It’s a conclusion anyone who ever went to a youth group lock-in is already well aware of.