The Opposing Effects of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness on Gene Expression is Correlated Noise

Background This paper re-analyzes the gene set data from Fredrickson et al. 2013 [1] and Fredrick2 son et al. 2015 [2] which purportedly showed opposing effects of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness 3 on the expression levels of a set of genes that have been correlated with social adversity. 4 Methods Four non-parametric methods were used to test the two null hypotheses addressed in the 5 original studies (H0 : β̄hedonia = 0 and H0 : β̄eudaimonia = 0) as well as the null hypothesis of no 6 difference in effect between hedonic and eudaimonic happiness (H0 : β̄hedonia − β̄eudaimmonia = 0). 7 Results The results unambiguously fail to support opposing effects, or any effect, on the pattern of 8 gene expression. 9 Conclusions The apparently replicated pattern of gene expression is simply “correlated noise” due to 10 the geometry of multiple regression given the strongly correlated measures of hedonic and eudaimonic 11 happiness. 12