A recent study in the World Happiness Report indicates that sharing meals is crucial for well-being, correlating with happiness similarly to income and employment. Despite this, American dining habits show a concerning trend, with a 53% increase in individuals eating meals alone since 2003. Researchers like Micah Kaats underscore the need for further exploration into whether meal sharing directly causes happiness, or if happier individuals are simply more inclined to share meals. This development emphasizes the complexities of measuring happiness and its relationship with social behaviors.
It may be a problem, then, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey found that Americans are spending more and more time dining apart, numbers the authors cite in their study.
The correlation itself is an important development for the field, according to Kaats, in part because happiness is hard to measure.
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