Sonja Lyubomirsky: Who Says You Need a Partner to be Happy?

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If you don’t have that special someone this Valentine’s Day, don’t despair. You’re in good company. Nearly 50 percent of American adults are single. And many of them are happily single. In fact, “there are many life-long singles, especially women, who are very happy, who are no less happy than married or partnered people,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside and the author of The Myths of Happiness.

In this video, Lyubomirsky lays out the reasons why singles should not be stigmatized by society as people who must be “more lonely, more sad, more deprived, and even less mature.” As Lyubomirsky points out, single people do in fact have “rewarding, lasting and meaningful relationships.”

[Video and text source: Big Think YouTube channel]