More Happiness NOW

Much of the time, economists talk about 'utility' and, yes, 'utility' isn't 'happiness' but if our work is completely unrelated to happiness, why are we doing it? In an effort to increase someone's utility, here's some psychological research on a simple trick to make yourself happier:

The authors hypothesized that thinking about the absence of a positive event from one's life would improve affective states more than thinking about the presence of a positive event but that people would not predict this when making affective forecasts. [4 studies later:] ... Internet respondents and university staff members who wrote about how they might never have met their romantic partner were more satisfied with their relationship than were those who wrote about how they did meet their partner.

Hat tip: MR