rePost:: Obesity, widowhood & happiness

I really need to get thinner!
Obesity, widowhood & happiness
Which is worse for happiness – being fat or suffering the death of a spouse?
Two recent papers suggest the answer is – being fat.
First, Marina-Selini Katsaiti finds that “obesity has a negative and statistically significant effect on individual well being”. She estimates that, in Germany, a three-point rise in BMI (from, say 24 to 27 – equivalent to gaining around 20 pounds for someone who’s 5’8”) reduces happiness on average by so much that it would require a 67% pay rise to compensate. In Australia it would require a doubling of income to offset the adverse effect of such a weight gain. Of course, these figures tell us how little income raises happiness, as well as how much chubbiness reduces it.
In the UK, the effect is smaller, but even here a 10-point rise in BMI reduces happiness by 0.1 units on a seven-point scale.
via Stumbling and Mumbling: Obesity, widowhood & happiness.