Is January really the most miserable month?

The Times

In a nutshell, events — outside global pandemics — tend not to have much of an impact on our happiness for long, unless they directly affect us.

Human moods are surprisingly resilient to external factors. Or, more likely, says Michael Plant, Oxford philosopher and founder of the Happier Lives Institute, we tend to focus on our own lives and what we can control. In his words, “We register the global events, then go back to the problems in front of us.”