CROWDSCIENC E
Every week on BBC World Service, CrowdScience answers listeners’ questions on life, Earth and the Universe. Tune in every Friday evening on BBC World Service, or catch up online at bbcworldservice.com/crowdscience
DOES SUNSHINE MAKE US HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER?
In many parts of the world, there’s a deeply ingrained belief that sunny days make us feel more cheerful. It seems like common sense, but the scientific evidence is surprisingly equivocal. Yes, there are individual studies supporting the link – for instance, in 2013, researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin reported that people surveyed on exceptionally sunny days felt more satisfied with life than people surveyed on cloudier days. However, an earlier and larger influential paper led by Humboldt-University in Berlin involving over 1,000 volunteers found no evidence that people enjoyed more positive moods on sunnier days (although they did tend to feel less tired).