So much for the controlled experiments, but what about people’s behaviour out in the wild, as it were - that is, in the real world? In one study, more than a million alerts were sent out to 20,000 people in the UK via their iPhones at various times of day over a six-month period. The phone’s satellite GPS was used to locate the owner to within an area of twenty-five square metres. No matter where they happened to be, and regardless of what they happened to be doing (driving excepted, one hopes), the smartphone app prompted the user to report how happy they were feeling and what they were up to at the time. The results were unambiguous: those who were quizzed when outdoors were simply much happier (significantly and substantially happier, according to the study’s authors) than those who responded while inside. Furthermore, various confounding factors, such as the weather, daylight, activity, companionship, time and day of the week were all controlled for with this particular experimental design.
