Moments of shared happiness can bring tangible health benefits to couples, as a study showed that couples in advanced stages of life who experience positive feelings together record a decrease in the level of the stress hormone “cortisol.”
A research team led by psychologist Tomiko Yoneda from the University of California, Davis, reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that these results confirm the direct impact of shared positive emotions on health.
Yoneda said in a press release issued by the American Psychological Association, “We know from numerous studies that positive feelings such as happiness, joy, love, and enthusiasm are beneficial to our health and are even associated with a longer life…but in real life, our strongest positive feelings often appear when we are in communication with another person.”
The research team wanted to understand how such shared moments affect the body. For this purpose, the researchers analyzed data on 642 elderly individuals (321 couples) from three studies conducted in Canada and Germany before the Corona pandemic, starting in 2019, and the ages of the participants ranged between 56 and 89 years.
Over the course of a week, participants answered electronic questionnaires five to seven times a day to monitor their feelings of happiness, relaxation, and interest, and then provided saliva samples to measure their cortisol level. The total number of measurements reached about 24 thousand samples.
The results showed that cortisol levels were lower when both spouses simultaneously reported positive feelings. This association remained even after taking factors such as age, gender, medication use, and natural daily fluctuations in cortisol into account.
“Sharing these positive feelings had a unique and powerful effect,” Yoneda said, adding that it was noteworthy that the effect lasted even after the day was over. “When couples felt good together, their cortisol levels remained low until later in the day. This suggests that shared experiences of positive feelings may actually help the body stay calmer over time,” Yoneda said.
Yoneda reported that this effect occurred regardless of the level of overall relationship satisfaction, as results showed that less satisfied couples also benefited physically from moments of shared happiness.