If you need an excuse to engage in all your favorite vices (sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, anyone?), science has one for you. A new study titled “Beyond Self-Control: Mechanisms of Hedonic Goal Pursuit and Its Relevance for Well-Being,” published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, says that it’s the little (often naughty) things that make us happy.
“It’s time for a rethink,” study co-author Katharina Bernecker of the University of Zurich said in a press release. “Of course, self-control is important, but research on self-regulation should pay just as much attention to hedonism, or short-term pleasure.”
The study found that the key to happiness was not just indulging in those fleeting pleasures, but in staying present and really enjoying them. People who can do that are happier in the short-term and the long-term. They’re also less likely to experience anxiety and depression than people who either don’t indulge or indulge but second-guess (and guilt-trip) themselves.
Translation: If you want that outrageous dessert, booty call, or new video game, go for it. Just make sure you give yourself complete permission to relish it and keep your inner critic quiet. Your lifelong happiness literally depends on it.
Cover Photo: Ivanko_Brnjakovic (Getty Images)
Deep Dive: Do More Partners Make You a Better Lover?
MORE NEWS:
Deep Dive: Is It Wrong to Pay for Sex?
Visit the Mandatory Shop for great deals on your very own Mandatory merch.
Follow Mandatory on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Weird News 7/21/2020
-
Men’s Beards May Have Evolved to Sustain Punches to the Head, Random Study Suggests Scientists Are Running Out of Things to Study
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: max-kegfire (Getty Images)
-
Louisiana Man Puts the ‘Ass’ in Bass Pro Shop by Swimming in Fish Tank
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: Niklas Jourdan / EyeEm (Getty Images)
-
San Jose Police Fire Rubber Bullets at Their Own Trainer, Rupturing His Testicle (That’s Nuts)
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images / Contributor (Getty Images)
-
Apple Delays iPhone 12 Release, Consumers Expected to Just Use Phone They’ve Had a Whole Year Already
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: Adam Kuylenstierna / EyeEm (Getty Images)
-
Ivanka Trump Tells Unemployed Americans to ‘Find Something New,’ Which Is Precisely What We Wish Her Whole Family Would Do
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: Alex Wong / Staff (Getty Images)
-
Dumb as Rocks: Kanye West Photoshops His Face Onto Mount Rushmore
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: @kanyewest (Twitter)
-
The Internet Had Its Phallic Way With Ivanka Trump Modeling Goya Beans, Hilarious Tweets Ensued
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: @SsnarkIsMyGame (Twitter)
-
Rudy Giuliani Calls NYPD After Being Pranked by Sacha Baron Cohen, Can Only Take a Joke if it Becomes President
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter, via Getty Images
-
Badass Mother Who Wore Face Mask Through 38-Hour Labor Says ‘If I Can, So Can You’
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: Jai Kershner
-
Aww Nuts: Squirrel in Colorado Tests Positive for Bubonic Plague Because 2020
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: Picture Alliance via Getty Images
-
Meanwhile in Florida…Woman Sues for Paternity Test on Goats (But Not for the Reason You Think)
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: SOPA Images via Getty Images
-
Trump’s Terrorist Theory of 75-Year-Old Man Shoved by Police Exhibits New Expert Level of Sociopathic Thinking
For more weird news, click here.
Photo Credit: Pool, Getty Images
