In recent years, a number of experiments have confirmed these subtle differences between happiness and meaning. In one study, Baumeister and colleagues found that factors such as feeling connected to others, feeling productive, not being alone, and not being bored contributed to both happiness and meaning. However, scientists have also found some important differences in how we relate to these aspects of being human:

1. Defining one's life as easy or difficult was associated with a sense of happiness, not meaning;
2. A healthy state is more often associated with happiness, and not with meaning;
3. A good mood also evoked happy experiences rather than a sense of meaning;
4. Lack of money influenced the feeling of happiness more than the feeling of meaning;
5. People whose life was filled with meaning agreed that “relationships are more valuable than achievements”;
6. Helping people in need was connected with the question of the meaning of life, not happiness;
7. Deep thinking is strongly associated with meaningfulness, not happiness;
8. Happiness was more related to the position of the recipient, not the giver, while meaningfulness was more correlated with the position of the giver, not the recipient;
9. The more people felt that their activities were compatible with the topics and values ​​that were important to them, the more meaning they put into their activities;

Seeing yourself as wise, creative, and even anxious was associated with questions of meaning and had nothing to do with happiness (in some cases it even showed a negative association).

It seems that happiness has more to do with satisfying needs, getting what you want, and general well-being, while giving meaning to something has to do with the unique inner workings of a person - finding and mastering one's own identity, self-expression and making sense of one's past, present and future experience.