New finding may help explain the gender difference in
happiness
A new study has found a gene that appears to make women
happy, but it doesn’t work for men. The finding may help explain why women are
often happier than men, the research team said.
Scientists at the University of South Florida (USF), the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), Columbia University and the New York State
Psychiatric Institute reported that the low-expression form of the gene monoamine oxidase A (MAOA)
is associated with higher self-reported happiness in women. No such association was found in men.
The findings appear online in the journal Progress in
Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.