Setting a goal of happiness can backfire

So says yet another study, this one published in the Perspectives on Psychological Science. (Thanks, Stacie!)

Excerpt:

The tools often suggested for making yourself happy aren't necessarily bad — like taking time every day to think about things you're happy about or grateful for, or setting up situations that are likely to make you happy. "But when you're doing it with the motivation or expectation that these things ought to make you happy, that can lead to disappointment and decreased happiness," Gruber says. For example, one study by Mauss and colleagues found that people who read a newspaper article extolling the value of happiness felt worse after watching a happy film than people who read a newspaper article that didn't mention happiness — presumably because they were disappointed they didn't feel happier. When people don't end up as happy as they'd expected, their feeling of failure can make them feel even worse.