"In 1978, a trio of psychologists curious about happiness assembled two groups of subjects. In the first were winners of the Illinois state lottery. These men and women had received jackpots of between fifty thousand and a million dollars. In the second group were victims of devastating accidents. Some had been left paralyzed from the waist down. For the others, paralysis started at the neck.... For a control, the psychologists assembled a third group, made up of Illinois residents selected at random from the phone book."
The answers were kind of surprising, and spawned a whole sub-genre of psychological research into human happiness.
Not nearly as funny as "CRACKED.COM Goes Postal on 5 Things You Think Will Make You Happy (But Won't)," but contains many similar insights... and a few different ones.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, I strongly recommend "Stumbling on Happiness". It basically goes on to explain why the things we think will make us happy, may not. And why the things we think will hurt us, may make us happier.
You're the 2nd person to recommend that book recently. Guess I'll have to read it.