January 18, 2010 | Mad Science
It’s a problem that has plagued many a thoughtful mind during that period when one week transitions into the next. Weekends, which often include Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, give rise to pleasant feelings that are largely absent on days occurring toward the start or middle of the week.
The disparity is perplexing because by most external indicators each day of the week shares many similarities with every other day. The sun rises and sets on weekends just as it does on weekdays, and just because it’s Sunday doesn’t mean that it’s any less illegal to, say, sell a kidney online.
The significance of both Saturday and Sunday beginning with the letter “S” has been explored, but researchers have been unable to agree on a theory as to why this alone would send serotonin levels soaring.
Livescience.com reports on a groundbreaking study conducted by the University of Rochester and published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology that may finally have cracked the code as to why people feel better on the weekend.
The results are sure to cause your brain to blow out the back of your head in shock: the researchers claim people experience mood boosts on weekends because they are free from the strictures of the workplace.
Adults between the ages of 18 to 62 were monitored over a period of three weeks and asked to specify by pager what they were doing three times daily, and what effect the activity was having on their moods on a seven point scale.
The results were surprising.
Workers across the board felt better on weekends – regardless of income, hours, education, age, marital status, genital piercings, number of Facebook friends, number of times the person has fallen victim to a telemarketing scam, and whether or not the person is on an FBI No Fly list, or had an ancestor who died of TB.
But why?
The five days leading up to the weekend are spent dealing with infighting, one-upmanship and the oppressive pettiness of one’s fellow workers along with swallowing the dictates of a vindictive manager with an elephant’s memory for grudges. And all this as the pervasive threat of a shit-canning justified by the downturn hangs in the air.
What more do you need to enjoy life? Drugs?
Participants in the study told researchers that they felt more autonomous when they were not working, and that Saturdays and Sundays were often spent doing activities of their own choosing, rather than those chosen by some guy who makes two bucks more than you an hour but still gets to be a bastard because he has “supervisor” next to his name.
By contrast, an average weekday “is replete with activities involving external controls, time pressures, and demands on behavior related to work, child care and other constraints,” the authors wrote.
Participants also enjoyed spending time with family members and close friends rather than being forced into the company of “colleagues with whom they share limited emotional connections.”
Further research is needed to determine if workers prefer defecating at the office, or in their own homes.
