Can happiness be inherited?

Yesterday, I read a very interesting news article on the topic of happiness.

It is discussing about a latest study of nearly 1,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins in which they found that genes control half the personality traits that make people happy while factors such as relationships, health and careers are responsible for the rest of our well-being.

So it seems like if we inherited the "happy" genes, we may tend to be a happier person. But what if we inherited the "sad" genes? Perhaps then we should "breed happiness thoughts" to these people since young? So that they could have a stronger inner emotional support later in life?

I was intrigued by these thoughts as I observed some difference in the emotional state of my fraternal twins. By the way, what this new study also showed was that the identical twins in a family were very similar in personality and in well-being, and by contrast, the fraternal twins were only around half as similar. I found that strangely true in my fraternal twins.

My twin girl, Gwyneth, tends to be happier and is always in a cheery mood. On the other hand, my twin boy, Asher, tends to be more worried and needs more assurance.

And it looks like this study has given parents a new task of "moulding" the other half of the children's happiness regardless if they inherited the "happy" or "sad" genes. Perhaps more so in the child who inherited the "sad" genes?

Read article:
"Happiness can be inherited, research finds".