January can feel exhausting. With the magic of Christmas and New Year fading fast, returning to routine brings with it an undeniable emotional slump. But is it really the saddest month?

The idea of “Blue Monday” caught on in 2005, when British psychologist Cliff Arnall announced that he had identified the saddest day of the year using a mathematical formula that factored in climate, post-holiday debt, and dwindling motivation in keeping up with New Year’s resolutions.

The scientific community quickly (and correctly) dismissed the idea as psuedoscience – far from a psychological finding, Arnall’s formula was revealed to be a marketing ploy designed for a travel agency. The agency’s proposed cure for the winter blues was, naturally, to purchase a holiday.

The term Blue Monday continues to appear each January in the media and in ad campaigns, despite a total lack of evidence that one specific day on the calendar is linked to an overall peak in unhappiness.

Sadness is a complex human response, not a programmed event. While winter weather can certainly affect your mood, there are commercial interests surrounding the concept of sadness, which seek to influence behaviour by encouraging people to consume objects or experiences.

Indeed, some brands have made sadness into a profitable........

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