Nonetheless, the same trend was found: The highest suicide rates in the US were found in states that were the most happy (like Utah), whereas the lowest suicide rates were found in states that were the least happy (like New York).

The researchers apparently controlled for the racial makeup, educational attainment, and employment status of a state. It was not clear whether they controlled for age, religiousness, alcoholism, or access to and familiarity with firearms - factors related to suicide risk.

The story also did not report when the measures of happiness and suicide were done. In other words, what is the sequence? The story was framed in such a way that the happiness (of some) was treated as the cause of suicide (of others), but I will have to wait for the publication of the actual study to understand this important issue.

To make this argument most strongly, we would need to know that those who commit suicide really are immediately surrounded by those who are happy. It is not obvious to me that those in one's "state" provide a typical comparison group. Rather, it is one's immediate family members, friends, colleagues, or neighbors to whom most of us compare and contrast ourselves.

As a positive psychologist, I am invested in the notion that happiness is a good thing. Research usually supports this notion, but perhaps happiness in the aggregate also results in some collateral damage.

We need to follow the data, so let us take the results at face value. If happy places are also deadly ones, this is certainly important to know. If we are surrounded by happy people when we ourselves are not happy, does the implied comparison push us from unhappiness to depression to suicide? Mind you, there would be many exceptions, and suicide remains a relatively rare occurrence. But a plausible case can be made that we judge how we are doing in life by comparison to others, including their apparent happiness, and if we seem to be doing more poorly than those around us, then we will suffer.

I close with a moral point. If we are happy, we have a psychological gift that does not belong just to us. We have an obligation, perhaps, to turn our happiness into compassion and to reach out to others who are less happy. It is clear that social isolation, in whatever state it may occur, is a breeding ground for alienation, depression, and suicide, so what are we doing as happy people to reduce the unhappiness of others?

*I am not fully convinced this trend is so simple. In my research for this essay, I found reports of extremely high suicide rates in such former Soviet bloc nations as Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia, and the Ukraine, countries notable as well for the low life satisfaction of their citizens. Suffice it to say the predictors of suicide, at the individual or societal level, are numerous and complex.