The science of happiness has produced hundreds of thousands of studies, studies, books and reviews, but what motivates honestly, to what extent, and who benefits the most is still far from being nailed down.
Now, psychologists have developed plans for the world’s largest happiness experiment to reveal at once what really gives people emotional strength, how well different methods work, and what the benefits are. the same all over the world.
“Our goal is for this to be the largest, most comprehensive, most diverse happiness experiment ever conducted,” said Professor Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “It’s like the Avengers: a bunch of great researchers from all over the world come together to join forces.”
Over the past six months, more than 1,000 scientists from more than 70 countries submitted proposals for the project. In December, a panel of experts narrowed these down to seven sets of measures, each including three or four different approaches, to be tested in the Global Happiness Megastudy.
The researchers intend to recruit at least 30,000 people worldwide for the trial. Volunteers will be assigned to perform a short, sharp operation from a list, or assigned to a control group for comparison. Each fun activity is designed to last no more than 25 minutes and does not require special equipment.
Tactics range from physical activity, which involves yoga, long-term training or resistance training, to social interactions, where people can call their loved one, push themselves to behave extreme, or chatting with an AI friend.
“All the procedures can be done at home, people don’t need someone to watch them or help them,” said Dr. Barnabás Szászi, behavioral scientist and principal investigator of the project at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. “That was a very conscious decision on our part.”
The project aims to address limitations that raise questions about the validity of some older happiness research. Another concern is that most of the research includes “weird” populations – western, educated, industrialized, wealthy and democratic – which means that most of the evidence is based on people from North America. , Europe and other western regions. But what makes someone happy in Chicago may not work in Chongqing, Nagoya or Mombasa.
Lack of diversity is not the only issue. Happiness processes are given in different ways to different people in different situations, making a direct comparison impossible. Another problem occurs when researchers do not register their studies in advance, a step that requires them to define their plans and analyzes in advance. This can lead to false reports if scientists repeatedly analyze their data until they get a significant result. This practice, known as p-hacking, is likened to pulling a target close to a bullet hole and claiming to hit a bull.
With the foundation in place, Dunn and Szászi are now looking for donors to take the project forward. If all goes well, they intend to publish a report in a major journal detailing the methods and data analyzes they will use. The tests themselves should begin soon after.
“What will we have at the end of it?” said Dunn. “We will have the largest and most diverse dataset ever collected on strategies that promote happiness. How effective are these strategies? Do they work across the board? Do some work particularly well for this group? a small number of people and do nothing for many others?
“If we find things that work everywhere, or that work at least in certain places, and we know what kind of places those are, or what kind of people benefit, that will be a huge advance.” for the science of happiness.”
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