① Happy people work differently. They’re more productive, more creative, and willing to take greater risks. And new research suggests that happiness might influence ____1____ firms work, too.
② Companies located in places with happier people invest more, according to a recent research paper. ____2____, firms in happy places spend more on R&D (research and development). That’s because happiness is linked to the kind of longer-term thinking ____3____ for making investments for the future.
③ The researchers wanted to know if the ____4____ and inclination for risk-taking that come with happiness would ____5____ the way companies invested. So they compared U.S. cities’ average happiness ____6____ by Gallup polling with the investment activity of publicly traded firms in those areas.
④ ____7____ enough, firms’ investment and R&D intensity were correlated with the happiness of the area in which they were ____8____. But is it really happiness that’s linked to investment, or could something else about happier cities ____9____ why firms there spend more on R&D? To find out, the researchers controlled for various ____10____ that might make firms more likely to invest – like size, industry, and sales – and for indicators that a place was ____11____ to live in, like growth in wages or population. The link between happiness and investment generally ____12____ even after accounting for these things.
⑤ The correlation between happiness and investment was particularly strong for younger firms, which the authors ____13____ to “less codified decision making process” and the possible presence of “younger and less ____14____ managers who are more likely to be influenced by sentiment.” The relationship was ____15____ stronger in places where happiness was spread more ____16____. Firms seem to invest more in places where most people are relatively happy, rather than in places with happiness inequality.
⑥ ____17____ this doesn’t prove that happiness causes firms to invest more or to take a longer-term view, the authors believe it at least ____18____ at that possibility. It’s not hard to imagine that local culture and sentiment would help ____19____ how executives think about the future. “It surely seems plausible that happy people would be more forward-thinking and creative and ____20____ R&D more than the average,” said one researcher.
