Psychologist Mark Travers has identified a simple daily habit that can improve relationships and boost happiness, and it requires neither exercise nor meditation. According to Travers, all it takes is genuinely listening when a loved one shares good news, Forbes reported.
Travers said the habit applies whenever someone close to you shares something positive, such as success at work, a finished project or another small win.
In that moment, he said, it is not enough to simply respond with something like "nice" or "that's good" while continuing with whatever else you are doing. Instead, he advised putting the phone down, asking follow-up questions and giving the other person room to describe what happened in more detail.
Psychologists call it capitalization
In psychology, this kind of response is known as capitalization, when one person shares a positive event and the other person's reaction helps amplify the positive emotions attached to it. Research cited by Travers shows that an engaged, enthusiastic response is linked to better relationship outcomes.
What matters is not only what a person says in reply but how actively they engage in the conversation. Genuine curiosity and questions such as "What happened next?" signal to the other person that their happiness matters.
Why good news matters too
Travers said people often treat support during hard times as the real test of a relationship. But how someone responds to good news reveals just as much about closeness between two people, he said.
Supporting someone through a problem is usually easy to notice. Small wins, such as a promotion, a successful meeting or finishing an important task, are easier to let pass without much attention.
Positive emotions can grow stronger when a person shares good news and receives a genuine reaction in return. Travers noted that research links an enthusiastic listener response not only to the news-sharer's mood but also to an improvement in the listener's own mood.
The key, Travers stressed, is not to turn this into a forced technique, since fake interest is easy to spot. What matters far more, he said, is genuinely paying attention to a person in the moment they want to share their joy.
