Global Happiness Megastudy Aims to Unlock the Science of Joy
What really makes people happy? Is it a morning jog, catching up with a friend over a cuppa, or simply spending time in nature? While plenty of us have our own go-to mood boosters, researchers behind the Global Happiness Megastudy are taking things to a whole new level. In what is set to be the largest study of its kind, scientists hope to discover which activities genuinely improve happiness, and why.
The project, led by experts from universities across the globe, is calling for 30,000 participants to take part in a wide-scale experiment, testing different approaches to wellbeing. From weight training and acts of kindness to chatting with an AI bot, researchers will explore a range of self-administered, low-cost interventions to find out which strategies work best across different cultures and lifestyles.
“It’s definitely daunting, but I’m really, really excited about it,” says Harry Clelland, a postdoctoral research fellow at Hungary’s ELTE University, and one of the key researchers behind the study. He explains that, despite the countless self-help books and articles on boosting happiness, many commonly recommended techniques lack strong scientific backing.
Until now, most happiness research has relied on small, Western-based samples, often focusing on participants from wealthy, educated backgrounds. The Global Happiness Megastudy aims to change that by conducting a more diverse, large-scale trial, ensuring the findings are relevant to people from all walks of life.
Another issue, Clelland explains, is that different studies measure happiness in different ways, making it difficult to compare results.
“We want to bundle all of this together in a grandiose study, testing loads and loads of different interventions on a universal happiness measure,”
he says.
To make the research as robust as possible, the team has recruited what Clelland jokingly describes as the “Avengers of happiness studies”, a group of leading psychologists and wellbeing experts, to help narrow down the most promising interventions. The result? A shortlist of 24 different happiness-boosting strategies, all designed to be easy, affordable, and widely accessible.
The study is now gearing up for its next phase: partnering with researchers worldwide to recruit participants, who will each be randomly assigned one of the 24 interventions. The ultimate goal is to build a reliable, evidence-based understanding of what truly works when it comes to improving happiness.
As for Clelland himself? His personal recipe for happiness is simple: “Happiness for me is in the pursuit of truth, and doing it alongside good people,” he says. “That, and getting to the end of this monster project with my sanity intact!”
If you’d like to learn more or get involved in the study, visit happinessmegastudy.com.
For more insights into psychology, wellbeing, and the latest research, visit EyeOnLondon. What do you think makes people truly happy? Have your say in the comments below!
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