PEOPLE are happier if they are able to feel emotions they desire, even if those emotions are unpleasant, a study suggests.

The results of the study, compiled by an international team of researchers, found happiness is “more than simply feeling pleasure and avoiding pain.”

Researchers asked participants what emotions they desired and felt.

This was then compared to how they rated their overall happiness, or life satisfaction. The researchers found that while people overall wanted to experience more pleasant emotions, they had the greatest life satisfaction if the emotions they experienced matched those they desired.

The cross-cultural study included some 2,300 university students from the United States, Brazil, China, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Poland and Singapore.

“If you feel emotions you want to feel, even if they’re unpleasant, then you’re better off,” lead researcher Dr. Maya Tamir from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told the BBC News website.

Anna Alexandrova, from the University of Cambridge’s Wellbeing Institute, said the research challenges how people think of happiness.

This study nicely calls into question a traditional measure of happiness that defines it as a ratio of positive to negative emotions, she said. (SD-Agencies)