Anything goes in attaining happiness - except spending time with the kids or being at work, a recent study by the University of Sussex and the London School of Economics found. To find out what creates happiness, researchers asked more than 20000 people to download an app which sent them a "ping" at various times of day and invited them to record their happiness levels, and what they were doing, at that time.Results show that intimacy and having sex are the top contenders for making people happy (14.2% of respondents), followed by going to a theatre, dancing and attending a concert (9.29%), and exhibition, museum and library visits (8.77%).The study found that spending an afternoon with the children is rather low on the list of happiness inducers, with only 4.1% finding it rewarding - only 0.47% more than those who liked playing with a pet.Clinical psychologist Faraaz Mahomed disagreed. She said South Africans' biggest source of happiness was their family and friends, and that this included the children.Mahomed said that when it comes to the unhappiness "things like the fact that the economy is in such a bad state" are important factors. This echoes the findings of 2013's Happiness Report, which showed that people living in countries where healthcare is poor, the economy unstable, and there is rampant crime and widespread poverty, tend to rank lower on the happiness scale.Long working hours affect personal and intimate relationships and foster a sense of loneliness among people the world over, said Mahomed...