The Sydney Morning Herald has an article on a research which is shown enforced jolliness may make people ill. Professor Zapf used a population of 4000 people to test on the stress and physical level of the participant when they received an abuse call from clients. The study concluded that a person repress the true feeling will have negative impact on health:
… Some of the participants were allowed to answer back, while others had to be polite and friendly all the time.
Those who stood up to clients had a rapid heartbeat for a brief period, but for those who had to remain friendly their heart was still racing long after the client had hung up.
The conclusion reached by the psychologists was that “being friendly against one’s will causes nothing but stress”.
Flight attendants, shop assistants and carers also took part in the study of emotional behaviour, which involved 4000 people, Professor Zapf said.
“We are all able to rein in our emotions,” he said. “It becomes difficult when you have to do this over a protracted period as cabin attendants are forced to on long-haul flights…
Secret to a long life – get even more often – [The Sydney Morning Herald]
I guess this is why the Japanese, who are (in)famous for repressing their true emotions and feelings, all die off so young . Seriously, not sure accurate this is considering the Japanese have one of the LONGEST lifespans.
I don’t think your remark on the japanese is relevant.
They indeed repress their emotions BUT they express them in other ways.
They evacuate the day stress with “nomikai”(drink parties) and karaoke at the end of the day where it is allowed to say all the bad stuff you think about the boss and all….
Yesterday I was with the boss of a 3000 men company(tokyo), and he was explaining exactly this as the japanese culture.
So japanese repress all day long but evacuate the same day to be fresh the next.
and so on…
Looks like this makes the trick for the long life ^^;
I always heard that it’s the food that makes Japanese people live longer.
Guess it’s a lot of factors put together that determines how long we will live.