I review about 100 character strengths studies per year. There are always a few studies that give me pause. I might see a counterintuitive finding, an idea I had not considered, or something that piques my signature strength of curiosity. In this post, I share 5 surprising and interesting studies. These stopped me for a moment—literally—and I see immediate practical use from each. These studies span many fields: workplace, coaching, clinical, and general audiences. I wonder if these studies give you an ah-ha, too! 1. Depressed People Can Improve Their Strengths In this quasi-experimental study, 50 women with major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to eight positivity training sessions or a control condition. Positivity training significantly enhanced character strengths, improved time perspective (reducing past-negative and present-fatalistic while increasing past-positive, present-hedonistic, and future orientations), and increased self-awareness. This study shows character strengths are modifiable in clinical depression (Barzigar & Homaei, 2024). Why is this striking? It is not typical for a positive psychology study to a) examine participants with an actual clinical disorder (it is, however, …