This is a weekly series on the latest happiness research. Learn and be merry! 

Home is where the stress is – A study from Pennsylvania State University found that people were more stressed at home than at work. Not only that, but women (but not men) were happier at work than at home. The researchers suggested that the difficulty of balancing work and family may come out at home, particularly for women juggling lots of chores and domestic responsibilities.

Ditch the pint of ice cream – According to a study out of the University of Minnesota, comfort foods might not actually be comforting us. After watching a disturbing video, people’s moods improved equally after eating a comfort food, a food they liked, a granola bar, and nothing at all.

Strap on your helmet – A Clemson study compared people’s emotions on different types of transportation, and found that we are happiest when biking – followed by riding in a car, driving a car, and taking the train or bus. This included commuting and non-commuting travel, so that could explain some of the findings.

Go Greek – The Gallup-Purdue Index, a survey of 30,000 university graduates, found that graduates who belonged to sororities or fraternities were happier after college. They were more engaged at work (43% vs. 38%), had higher well-being, had more supportive social lives, were healthier, and felt less stressed about money (possibly because they took out fewer student loans, 42% vs. 49%).

Photo by Flickr user JD Hancock