Happiness makes us want to sharePsychoanalyst Donald Winnicott discovered that our first emotional action in life is to respond to our mother’s smile with a smile of our own. Obviously, joy and happiness are hard-wired into all of us.

The left pre-frontal cortex of the brain is where happiness traits like optimism and resilience live. A study done at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience watched Buddhist Monks and found that the left prefrontal lobe of their brains lit up as they entered a blissful state of meditation.

Other than making us … well, happy … joy can also be a driver of action. Winnicott’s discovery of a baby’s “social smile” also tells us that joy increases when it is shared.

No wonder, then, that happiness is the main driver for social media sharing. Emotions layered with and related to happiness make up the majority of this list of the top drivers of viral content as studied by Fractl.

Is it...

When we're happy, we share?

Or is it...

When we share, we're happy?

Here’s what Fractl’s study of top emotional drivers looks like overlaid on the emotion wheel:

Anticipation and Surprise seems to be the big drivers.