Want to be happy? Be extrovert

If happiness is what you are seeking, just be yourself - call an old friend to dinner or smile at a passerby - as a study has found that people with outgoing behaviour are a happier lot across cultures.

Across the board, people reported more positive emotions in daily situations where they also felt or acted more extroverted.

"We are not the first to show that being more extroverted in daily behaviour can lead to more positive moods. However, we are probably the first to extend this finding to a variety of cultures," explained Timothy Church, a professor of counseling psychology at Washington State University.

So far, the researchers have studied people in eight different nations including Mexico, Malaysia and Australia.

The researchers used a "Big Five" (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) personality trait survey for the study.

Similarities in personality traits were documented in people from different cultures although their expressions varied.

The study appeared in the Journal of Research in Personality.