Having a flow experience can boost happiness levels. You are actively involved in a task that is challenging (but achievable) and goal-oriented. Afterwards you feel great. New research suggests that you can feel even better afterwards if you carry out your task with other people. A survey and two experiments conducted by Walker of Bonaventure University in the US supports this idea. The survey had people describe examples of flow and rate their levels of joy. Those experiences that involved others were rated as being more joyful than those carried out alone. The first experiment involved participants carrying out a paddleball game either with another or alone. Again, participants reported greater joy when they had carried out the task with another. The final experiment had participants play a ball game that either required greater interdependence with their team or none at all. The higher interdependent people later gave higher joy ratings.
It would be interesting to see if personality would make a difference. Introverts enjoy time alone and so may achieve greater flow fromn solitary acitivites, compared to extraverts who like spending time with others. Extraverts are in the majority, so could easily have impacted on these findings.
