Apparently today is "the most depressing day of the year" according to an equation crafted by psychologist Cliff Arnall.
To find the saddest day of the year, you multiply the sum of bad winter weather and post-holiday debt with the time passed since Christmas to the power of the amount of time since failing our New Year's resolutions. Then you divide that amount by the product of low motivational levels.
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Simple? Not really. Scientific? Debatable.
Dubbed “Blue Monday,” the idea dates back to a 2005 campaign by Sky Travel.
In an effort to encourage consumers to take January vacations, the travel and leisure company reached out to the former Cliff University professor to develop an equation and find the most miserable date of the year.
Dean Burnett, neuroscientist and present Cardiff lecturer, called “Blue Monday” a PR stunt. He argued that there is no concrete, scientific evidence that this particular day exhibits more sadness than other specific days of the year.
“This claim is incorrect,” he said. “It is unscientific. It is pseudoscientific. It is uber-pseudoscientific.”
And yet, Blue Monday lives on. Why is that? You might ask.
“[People] feel down at this time of year, and the Blue Monday claim makes it seem like there are scientific reasons for this,” Burnett told CTV News.
“It also breaks down a very complex issue into something easily quantifiable and simple, and that tends to please a lot of people, giving the impression that the world is predictable and measureable.”
Sadly, not everything is quantifiable. But cheer up! There's plenty to be grateful for.