It’s hard to get proof of what makes people happy, but there is a longitudinal study examining happiness since the 1930s and, after decades of research, the results have been published in a new book, The good life.
The Harvard Study on Adult Development, led by Professors Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, has studied the same 700 people and their families over time to determine what makes people prosperous. They asked thousands of qualitative questions, as well as hundreds of quantitative measures of health, from brain scans to blood tests.
Participants were chosen from either male Harvard students or a group of low-income boys from a Boston suburb. Every five years they provided medical information and every two years they answered detailed questions. Their wives and children subsequently joined the study, which has followed this group through work, marriage, divorce, and even death: 25 participants left their brains with the study after they died.
Waldinger is the fourth director of the project throughout his life. According to him, “we have learned that people believe that happiness is something that can be achieved: If you buy a house, get a promotion or lose enough weight, happiness will come by itself.. We act like it’s a destination we’ll get to if we tick the right boxes, but the data shows very clearly that this is not true. And that’s good, because satisfaction is no longer something unattainable, but eminently achievable for everyone.
It turns out that money does not make people happy, nor does their position or rank. It is above all the relationships and connections that are forged that make people happier.. Whether in the form of friendships, book clubs, romantic relationships, religious groups, sports partners or co-workers, the people with the strongest ties and social connections at fifty were in better shape at eighty.
As the authors summarize, “good relationships keep us happier and healthier. And period ».
