Victor J. Strecher

“What turned heads was the finding from the blood samples. Participants scoring high on the hedonic scale were far more likely to have inflammatory gene expression and decreased expression of genes involved in antibody and antiviral response, whereas participants scoring high on the eudaimonic scale had the opposite pattern of expression. In other words, participants with greater eudaimonia were physiologically healthier. As the researchers state, “Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being were originally distinguished to resolve basic and ancient philosophical questions regarding the best way for humans to live. The present data offer little grounds to prefer one mode of happiness over the other based on affective experience, but they identify a stark contrast at the level of molecular physiology.” But before we assume that Angelina Jolie will live to be 140 and Paris Hilton will explode in a giant ball of pus, we should do what scientists like to do when something as radical as this is found: more research.”
― Victor J. Strecher, Life on Purpose: How Living for What Matters Most Changes Everything