The Opposing Effects of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness on Gene Expression is Correlated Noise

Abstract

Background. This paper re-analyzes the gene set data from Fredrickson et al. (2013) and Fredrickson et al. (2015) which purportedly showed opposing effects of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness on the expression levels of a set of genes that have been correlated with social adversity. Methods. Four non-parametric methods were used to test the two null hypotheses addressed in the original studies (H0 : Hedonia = 0 and H0 : Eudaimonia = 0) as well as the null hypothesis of no difference in effect between hedonic and eudaimonic happiness (H0 : Hedonia − Eudaimonia = 0). Results. Standardized effects (mean partial regression coefficients) of Hedonia and Eudaimonia on gene expression levels are very small in both the 2013 and 2015 data, as well as the combined data. The p-values from all four tests are similar in magnitude and fail to reject any of the null models. Discussion. The results unambiguously fail to support opposing effects, or any detectable effect, of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness on the pattern of gene expression. The apparently replicated pattern of gene expression is simply correlated noise due to the geometry of multiple regression given the strongly correlated measures of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness.