New study: How to be happy

Good science = happiness

Sep 30, 2024

Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist and professor at Brown University, co-founder of Tech Without Stress, and mom of two young kids. If you like Techno Sapiens, please consider sharing it with a friend today. Thanks for your support!

5 min read

I spend a lot of time combing through academic papers. Typically, the titles of these papers are not exactly catchy,1 but every once awhile, a title jumps out at me. For example:

How can people become happier? A systematic review of preregistered experiments

Learning how to be happier? A systematic review of prior studies? Preregistered experiments?! This paper is my own personal catnip.2

And let me tell you: it does not disappoint.

Do you also want to learn how to be happier? And do you want to do so using only the highest-quality scientific studies?

Well then, you’re in the right place.

Okay, back up, what does “preregistered” mean?

We will get to the whole “becoming happier” thing in just a second. First, we need to understand why this particular paper matters.

It starts with a quick history lesson. In the late 90s and early 2000s, there was an explosion in research (and published papers) on happiness. Then, in the midst of this explosion (roughly 2010-2012), the field of psychology came to an unsettling realization: a lot of these papers were total nonsense. They relied on faulty, but common, publishing practices like p-hacking (i.e., selectively reporting results only for analyses that came out as expected).3 When held up to scrutiny, the findings could not be replicated.

This all came to a head when a highly-respected journal published a paper claiming to prove that people’s behavior can be influenced by future events that have not yet happened, a la The Sixth Sense. This clearly problematic “ESP-is-real” paper gave way to “a spiral of methodological introspection” among psychology researchers. Obviously, new standards were needed.

One such proposed standard, which is now increasingly common practice, is called “preregistration.” The basic idea is this: researchers make public their plans for studies—including all the analyses they’re going to run—before they actually do so. No more tinkering after-the-fact, or selectively reporting certain analyses, or changing up the statistical methods until you get the finding you hypothesized. As a result, we can generally be more confident in the results of “preregistered” studies.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it is moving things in the right direction. At least, that’s what my sixth sense is telling me.

Just tell me how to be happy already! I don’t have all day!

Alright, onto the paper at hand.4

The researchers decided to systematically review every experimental study on happiness, but to limit their search to preregistered experiments only. The downside of this approach is that it leaves out a lot of studies, but the (major) upside is that it increases the likelihood that the included studies are good ones.

So, what did the researchers find?

They break down happiness-increasing activities into two categories: addition (things we can add to our lives) and subtraction (things we can eliminate from our lives).

Here is what the current evidence supports, along with some examples of relevant studies.5

Addition: Things to add to our lives to make us happier

1. Express gratitude

Think about how grateful you are for someone in your life, and consider telling them! In one study (I wrote about it here), participants’ moods improved after being told to write a gratitude letter to someone (without sending it), send a gratitude text, or post their gratitude on social media.

2. Be more social

Spend time connecting with the people around you. One study randomly assigned people to talk to a stranger while commuting (versus their typical commuting activities), and those people reported being in a better mood during the commute.

3. Act happy

Smile! One study showed that asking people to smile naturally (e.g., by mimicking a person smiling in a photo) improved mood. The key is a natural smile, as commonly-cited studies that involved participants biting on pens (i.e., to produce a smile-like facial expression—yes, really) have been mostly debunked.

4. Increase novelty

You may remember our discussion of hedonic adaption, or the idea that we quickly adapt to positive experiences. One way to avoid this is through injecting novelty into everyday experiences. For example, one study randomly assigned people to treat their weekend as a vacation, resulting in better moods and greater satisfaction when they returned to work on Monday. Another study—in all seriousness—assigned people to create “hand goggles” when watching a video for the third time, thereby making the experience more novel and increasing enjoyment.67

5. Help others

Evidence suggests people may feel happier when they choose to spend money on others (through gifts or donations, for example). Surprisingly, there was less evidence for engaging in random acts of kindness or volunteer work. This doesn’t mean these things won’t increase happiness, just that there are few preregistered experiments proving it.

Subtraction: Things to subtract from our lives to make us happier

1. Reduce unpleasant time use

This one seems obvious, but the basic idea is to do less of the things we don’t like. One study gave participants $40 to spend on a purchase that would save them time (e.g., paying someone to do household chores). Another weekend, they gave participants $40 to spend on a material purchase. When participants made the time-saving purchase, they felt less pressed for time and, subsequently, happier. Of course, this type of arrangement is not always possible (financially or otherwise), but when we do have the option, it may make sense to prioritize “time-saving” purchases over other purchases.

2. Reduce smartphone and social media use

Right up Techno Sapiens’ alley! Note that this may be especially beneficial when it enhances our engagement in social situations (see this post), and also when it extends for a longer stretch of time (i.e., giving up social media for a full month, versus only one day).

Go out and be happy

And there we have it! Simple ways to increase happiness, supported by (high-quality) science. Of course, there are interventions missing here, many of which have decades of research supporting them (e.g., exercise, time in nature, meditation). Remember: this does not mean that these things are not effective for increasing happiness, just that there are few (if any) preregistered experiments on them.

Also notably missing from the list: finding the perfect academic paper for your newsletter. Proven to increase happiness, every time.

A quick survey

What did you think of this week’s Techno Sapiens? Your feedback helps me make this better. Thanks!

The Best | Great | Good | Meh | The Worst

It is no fault of the authors of academic papers that the their titles are kind of snoozy. It’s just how academia works. See, for example, my own paper titles, which somehow make objectively interesting subjects (teenagers! social media!) incredibly boring: Transformation of adolescent peer relations in the social media context: Part 1—A theoretical framework and application to dyadic peer relationships and Technology‐based communication and the development of interpersonal competencies within adolescent romantic relationships: A preliminary investigation

Full citation: Folk & Dunn (2024). How Can People Become Happier? A Systematic Review of Preregistered Experiments. Annual Review of Psychology.

For a cool demonstration of how easily p-hacking can occur, check out this tool, aptly titled “Hack Your Way to Scientific Glory.”

I recognize that part of my excitement in seeing this article was that it seemed like a very efficient, low-effort way to figure out what might make us happy, which, on further reflection, is not really how happiness works.

Note that this paper also briefly reviewed research on how governments and organizations can improve people’s happiness. They found evidence, perhaps unsurprisingly, that providing under-resourced individuals with financial support can increase well-being. They also found that a simple workplace intervention reliably increased happiness: providing workers a place to nap. Sign me up!!!

In reference to the “hand-goggles” study, the authors note: “It is unclear exactly how to apply this in the real world, where hand goggles might quickly lead to hand cramps.” I love this paper.

Okay, one more note on hand goggles. Do we think the study involved standard hand goggles (i.e., binocular style), or the upside down ones (i.e., goggles made with your index fingers and thumbs, with other fingers pointing downward)? Also, did you also grow up playing the game with your friends where you had to create upside down hand goggles as fast as possible? Or were you cool?