What really makes a happy ending happy?

The New York Times recently ran a story about how movie producer Lindsay Doran is trying to get Hollywood to think differently about storytelling by applying the ideas of positive psychology. If you're a writer, it's well worth your time to read the full article here, but here are some of my favorite quotes to whet your appetite:

"Audiences don’t care about an accomplishment unless it’s shared with someone else. What makes an audience happy is not the moment of victory but the moment afterwards when the winners shares that victory with someone they love."

 The protagonist may be happy at the end, “but his smile,” she said, “is laced with the loss that’s come before.”

...Instead, she said, “the accomplishment the audience values most is resilience.”

Thought-provoking stuff, to be sure!