I don’t think that paying attention to all the research telling us how to be happier will actually make us less happy. Our research suggests that when people pursue happiness single-mindedly and for the sake of being happier, it tends to make them less happy. However, our research does not show that wanting to be happy is always and necessarily self-defeating.

Wanting to be happy may not be self-defeating when people have the right tools to pursue happiness. Such tools include engaging in activities that make you happy rather than directly and deliberately trying to be happier, avoiding exceedingly high standards for your happiness, avoiding constant monitoring of your own happiness, and engaging in social relationships. Most research on how to enhance happiness explores what such effective tools might be and precisely how they enhance people’s happiness. Thus, a careful reading of this research will avoid the self-defeating effects of wanting to be happier and rather provide people with the right tools to become happier.

Iris Mauss is a professor of psychology and the director of the Emotion Regulation Lab at the University of Denver.