Researchers at the University College London have formulated an equation that can predict a person's happiness.

The equation was able to predict the happiness of more than 18,000 people worldwide. Researchers said the results revealed that moment-to-moment happiness is not only based on how well things are going, but also how much better it is than what was expected.

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The equation was able to precisely predict how people will rate their feelings based on moment-to-moment events in their lives.

Different decisions and different events, as well as the positive effects they get after a specific task, create variations in feelings.

The experiment using the equation revealed that wealth is not an accurate indicator of happiness. Instead, it showed that happiness is dependent on rewards and expectations that were met or exceeded.

The study on moment-to-moment happiness was published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

It tackled the happiness-reward relationship and also dealt with cognitive processes that lead to feelings like happiness.

Dr. Robb Rutledge of the UCL Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging and the new Max Planck UCL Center for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing authored the study. He said the team expected rewards to play a big factor in determining a person's happiness.

What they failed to take into consideration, however, was that expectations also greatly affected how a person felt.

"Life is full of expectations -- it would be difficult to make good decisions without knowing, for example, which restaurant you like better. It is often said that you will be happier if your expectations are lower.

"We find that there is some truth to this: lower expectations make it more likely that an outcome will exceed those expectations and have a positive impact on happiness," Rutledge said.

In addition, he said that expectations alone can already cause happiness. If a person expects a positive outcome, the person already feels a surge of happiness even without the actual result of the expectation.

The research team used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to show how the brain, specifically the area called striatum, looks like when it's happy.

The striatum is the part of the brain that demonstrates different signals that can be used to predict moment to moment happiness.

It contains numerous dopamines, which is a neurotransmitter. It leads scientist to believe that dopamine plays a role in determining emotions such as happiness. 

TagsScience, Research, experiment, Happiness