What The Ultimate Study On Happiness Reveals

- This video is about one of the most important questions:

what

leads to a happy life? - Realistically, money. - Being rich is definitely an important aspect. - To save a lot of money. - Money. - Money. - Earning money. - It is very important to be rich. - It's easy for people to say that they don't care about having money and that money can't buy

happiness

, but that's really not true. - Because I'd rather cry on a yacht than in a Subaru. (Both laugh) - Clearly, having a successful career and financial wealth are important to people.

Is there a number in mind? Anything you want to get to? - At least a million. - Yeah? - Yes. - In a 2018 survey of about one hundred thousand college freshmen, approximately 55% said they wanted to be successful in their career and 83% said they wanted to get rich. But do these achievements really increase

happiness

? Well, that's

what

I want to discover in this video. But how do you

study

what makes people happy? Well, you can ask them. What will make you happy? - Hmm. - Oh. - Oh. - Oh. - Oh. - But people are not very good at judging what will make them happy.

It seems like winning the lottery should make you happy. - That!? (sister screams) What!? That!? - But numerous studies of lottery winners find that once the initial surge of happiness wears off, many are no happier than the rest of us. In fact, some are more miserable than before. - Because you don't see as many people as before. Obviously, I think in some ways you isolate yourself a little bit. - Yes I agree. - Another problem is that people's memories are not reliable. - We only detect, encode and store in our brain fragments of the entire experience in front of us.

It's called reconstructed memories. It happens to us in all aspects of our lives all the time. - Most studies on happiness find older people and ask them to remember what made them happy. But as we just saw, memory is not reliable. So a better way to conduct a

study

would be to follow people throughout their lives, capturing the decisions they make and how they affect their happiness. That's really hard to do. But there is a study like this that has been done since 1938. Now, 85 years is a long time to do a study, so it has been passed down from one generation of researchers to the next.

It is currently directed by its fourth director, Robert Waldinger. What then is the studio's claim to fame? - You know, its claim to fame is that it is, as far as we know, the longest study of human development ever conducted. The longest study of any depth. These are studies that delve into people's lives and their physical and mental health. - The study actually began as two separate studies conducted by two groups of Harvard researchers who did not know each other. The first group followed 268 young people from Harvard to find out how they would develop into early adulthood. - So, of course, if you want to study the normal development of young adults, you study all the white kids at Harvard, right? (Derek laughs) You know, it's one of those limitations. - The second group studied 456 children from high school onwards from the poorest and most disadvantaged families in Boston. - So there were these two studies, both intended to be studies of what goes well in development and how we predict who does well as they get older. - Finally, the two studies were merged into one: The Harvard Study of Adult Development.

At the beginning of the study, participants were interviewed and underwent extensive physical examinations. And as they grew up, they entered all walks of life. Some of them became bricklayers, doctors, factory workers and lawyers, and one even became president of the United States. (presidential music) Every two years, researchers ask them questions about their lives. For example, "If you could stop working without losing income, what would you do instead? How often do you feel isolated from others? True or false, life has more pain than pleasure." And other questions about your marriage, career, friendships, and your physical and mental health.

While the study began with only 724 participants, over time, their spouses and children were also included in the study. So, how many people are we talking about in total who have been part of the study? - Between 2,500 and 3,000 people in total in the study. - And as technology improved, so did data collection methods. - Now we extract blood from DNA. You know, DNA wasn't even imagined in 1938. We measure messenger RNA, DNA methylation, we bring people into our lab, we deliberately stress them, and then we see how quickly they recover from the stress. Looking at heart rate variability, for example, looking at cortisol deposited in hair, because it appears to be a long-term measure of circulating cortisol.

But all these new methods are at the service of the study of the same great phenomena of human well-being. - So what do 85 years of research on entire human lives teach us about a healthy and happy life? - Really two important conclusions. It's no surprise. The thing is, if you take care of your physical health, it has enormous benefits, not only for your longevity, but for how long you stay healthy. Eating well, exercising regularly, not abusing alcohol or drugs, not smoking, getting preventive health care, and exercising are of great importance. - A Taiwanese study analyzed the medical data of 416,000 healthy people between 1996 and 2008.

Eight years later, they followed each person to look at the link between exercise and mortality. They found that people who exercised just 15 minutes a day had a 14% lower risk of dying and a three-year longer life expectancy. Every additional 15 minutes of exercise reduced the risk of dying by an additional 4%. A large meta-analysis from 2008 confirms that physically active people have a reduced risk of dying during the periods investigated in each study. Exercise also protects our cognitive health. A 2014 meta-analysis found that participants with higher levels of physical activity had a 35% lower risk of cognitive decline and a 14% lower risk of dementia. - And then the big surprising finding is that relationships not only keep us happier, they keep us healthier and help us live longer. - It's not just the Harvard study.

There is now a comprehensive list of studies showing the importance of relationships for human happiness and health. They teach us three main lessons. The first is that relationships are excellent for our health. In 2010, researchers examined 148 studies with a total of more than 300,000 participants. They found that, on average, people with stronger social connections were 50% more likely to survive in a given year. Being married, in particular, has a huge impact on the length of people's lives. - There is a study, I think it is quite respected, that suggests that married men live 12 years longer on average than single men and married women live on average seven years longer than single women.

Marriage is always better for men in all parameters than for women. (Derek laughs) And it's not because you have a marriage license, right? This is because people who live together in an intimate relationship tend to stay healthier with each other. You have someone who is watching, taking care of you. It is a very real and concrete effect. - If feeling well connected to others makes us happier, healthier and prolongs our life, what happens if we feel disconnected? - There is a researcher, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, from the University of Utah, who did a meta-analysis of a large number of studies on the physical effects of loneliness.

And her calculation was that being alone is as dangerous to your health as smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day, or as dangerous as being obese. - Feeling disconnected from others also makes you more prone to illness. A large 2016 meta-analysis found that poor social relationships were associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke. - So this has real and quantifiable consequences when we look at studies of thousands of people. - One caveat is that most studies on the health effects of loneliness focus on people aged 50 and older. (the clock is ticking) And loneliness is increasing. - The Surgeon General of the United States today declared a new public health epidemic in the United States.

Loneliness. - We are now discovering that one in two adults report measurable levels of loneliness and it turns out that young people are the most affected. And here's why this is so worrying. It's because we have realized that loneliness is more than just a bad feeling. It has real consequences for our physical and mental health. - The United Kingdom has appointed a loneliness minister. Many, many countries are concerned about this breakdown of social connection. - A question about loneliness, like, what is that like? Because, obviously, everyone experiences some periods of loneliness. So when does it become really harmful and how do we define it? - Well, loneliness is different from being alone, right?

So you can be alone and quite content, and many people, in fact, are. The ability to be content when you are alone is quite a skill and it is a wonderful skill. Loneliness is that subjective experience of being less connected to people than you want. And that's why you can feel alone in the crowd. We're all on a spectrum between extroversion, you know, wanting a lot of people in our lives, and introversion, which actually needs a lot of solitude and doesn't want a lot of people; many people are stressful for introverts. And what we know is that neither of us are healthier, right?

As if introverts are perfectly healthy. They may just need one or two really solid relationships and don't want a lot more people. There is nothing wrong with that. While extroverts may want to have many people in their lives. - So the second lesson is that it's not about how many people you know or see, or even whether you're married or not, because a bad marriage can be worse for your health than getting a divorce. Rather, what matters is the quality of your close relationships. - When we followed all the original people into their 80s, we said, "Okay, what data are really the best predictors at age 50 of who will be happy and healthy at age 80 versus sick or dead?" And we thought we were going to consider blood pressure and cholesterol level at age 50 as the most powerful predictors.

It was their relationships. It was particularly their satisfaction with their marital relationships that was the strongest predictor. - And relationships not only keep us happier and physically healthier, they also protect our brains. People who are in secure relationships into their 80s, where they feel they can trust the other person, find that their memories stay clearer for longer. And people who feel lonely, well, their memories fade faster. A study of retired American adults found that the rate of cognitive decline was 20% higher over 10 years for those who were lonely. A 2018 meta-analysis further confirms the detrimental effects of loneliness and finds that it also increases the risk of dementia.

But there's still a big open question: What is it about relationships that makes them particularly healthy or useful? - The best hypothesis, on which there is currently quite decent research, is that relationships are regulators of emotions. They are stress regulators. Stressful things happen to many of us every day, right? So what's up? Well, the body goes into fight or flight mode, blood pressure rises, breathing becomes faster, and circulating levels of the stress hormone increase. But then the body must return to balance after that normal fight or flight response when faced with a challenge. If I can come home and there's someone here to talk to, I can literally feel my body calm down.

What we're pretty sure happens is that people who are isolated are more likely to stay in a sort of chronic fight-or-flight mode. And that means they have higher levels of circulating cortisol, higher levels of chronic inflammation, and those things gradually wear down the body's systems. This is how, for example, chronic stress can predict coronary artery disease, but also arthritis and also type two diabetes because of this common mechanism that damages multiple systems in the body. - The key to preventing this breakdown is simple. Just spend a little more time with the people you care about. Unfortunately, we seem to be doing exactly the opposite.

Before we explain why we're doing the exact opposite, this part of the video was sponsored by BetterHelp. There are many things that can negatively impact our happiness. It could be stress, fear or a clinical mental health problemsuch as depression or anxiety. But regardless of which it is, therapy can help you by giving you the tools to approach her life in a very different way. And that's where BetterHelp comes into play. They connect you with a licensed, experienced therapist who is trained to listen to you and provide helpful, unbiased advice. I know that finding a good therapist is difficult, especially when you only have options in your city.

But BetterHelp is a game changer because it is an online platform. And by completing a few questions, you will be assigned a professional therapist. Therefore, in most cases you can start talking within 48 hours and then you can have your therapy session as a phone call, video chat, or even through messages if you prefer. Whichever version of therapy is most comfortable for you. And it's easy to sign up, there's a link in the description. It's Betterhelp.com/veritasium. Clicking that link helps support this channel and also gets you 10% off your first month of BetterHelp. Then you can try it and see if it helps you.

And if you really don't fit in with your first therapist, which is pretty common, you can easily switch to a new one for free without worrying about insurance, who's in your network, or anything like that. If you feel like you could benefit from talking to someone, getting feedback, advice and help on anything that may be affecting your happiness and progress in life, then visit betterhelp.com/veritasium or click the link in the description below. So I want to thank BetterHelp for sponsoring this part of the video. And now, let's get back to the importance of relationships.

There is an alarming trend in our society. - Social interaction with friends decreased from 60 minutes a day in 2003 to just 20 minutes a day in 2020. - Technology has fundamentally changed the way we interact and communicate with each other and, unfortunately, has often replaced what previously In-person connections are enriched by online connections, which are often of lower quality. - Now, you can say that you are an introvert and that you don't need to spend a lot of time with people to feel good. And while it's true that introverts and extroverts need different amounts of social stimulation, they both need human connection.

In 2015, Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues analyzed data from 70 independent studies with more than 3 million participants in total. As in other studies, they found that the subjective feeling of loneliness increased the risk of premature death by 26%. But they also looked at the objective measure of social isolation: how much time you actually spend with other people. And they found that social isolation increased the risk of premature death by 29%. And unfortunately, introverts are more at risk of becoming socially isolated. Like many young people today, many participants in the Harvard study also believed that money and achievement were what they should pursue to have a good life.

But what this study and many others show is that the happiest people were those who supported themselves in their relationships with their partner, friends, family and community. And when they were 80 years old, researchers asked them: what are you most proud of and what do you regret most? - Many people said they were most proud of something that had to do with their relationships. So it could be, "I was a good boss, I was a good father, I was a good friend, I was a good mentor." Nobody said, "I made a fortune," right? Nobody even said, "I won the Nobel Prize," which some people did.

It wasn't about those badges of achievement, right, that we thought like, "Oh, that's what we should come to feel like if we've had a meaningful life." Everyone who looked back mentioned their relationships. The biggest regret was particularly among men, because this was the World War II generation. They said, "I wish I hadn't spent so much time at work, I wish I'd spent more time with the people I care about." - So what about our original question? Do achievements and money really make us happy? Well, according to the Harvard study, achievement badges don't necessarily make us happier, but doing meaningful work can.

And what about the money? Does that make us happier? Well, there is a famous 2010 study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton that found that above an income of around $75,000 a year, there is no improvement in measures of emotional well-being. But 11 years later, Matthew Killingsworth studied data on 33,000 employed American adults and found that higher incomes corresponded to higher levels of well-being. So he wrote: "There was no evidence of a plateau of well-being experienced above $75,000 a year, contrary to some influential previous research." In 2022, Kahneman and Killingsworth set out to resolve the conflict with Barbara Mellers as mediator. When they analyzed the Killingsworth data, they discovered an interesting pattern: Depending on how happy people were relative to each other, earning more resulted in different increases in happiness.

For each income level, they divided people into groups based on their happiness: low, medium, high, etc. And they found that below a threshold of about a hundred thousand dollars a year, higher income was associated with greater happiness for all groups. But if that threshold is exceeded, for the unhappiest group, a greater increase is not associated with more happiness. However, for all the happiest groups, higher incomes appear to lead to greater happiness. And the real twist is that those who are happiest at the beginning are the ones who gain the most as their income increases. Relationships, meaningful work, and money all play a role in our happiness.

So why can it be so difficult to realize how important relationships are? - You know, if you think about it, relationships have been there since before we can remember, right? They are like the air we breathe, we take them for granted. So don't think of it as something you cultivate to make yourself happy. We didn't think about that at all. And yet, when we study it scientifically, we discover that it turns out to be a huge predictor of happiness and physical health. - What will make you happy? - Hmm. - Oh. - Oh. - Oh. - Hmm. - Oh. - Being rich is definitely an important aspect.

But that loving family is like their foundation. You know what I mean? - Realistically, money. But building deep connections with people is what will make me happy. - That's great. - Have good relationships with other people. - You form a family. - Have a family and provide. - Friends and family. - Seeing my family happy, that's the only thing that really matters to me. - Give back to the community where you come from, the world. - A solid family base to come home to every night. - Yes. I want to get married and have many children.

I want... - How much is a ton? - Probably about five or six. - That's... - As many as I can afford. (Derek laughs) So. - In fact, when I interviewed people, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many identified the importance of relationships. So if you could give people advice on what to start doing today to start being happier, what suggestions would you make? - If we consider it analogous to physical exercise, if you go out today, you don't come home and say, "I'm done. I'll never have to do that again," right? It's like a practice, right?

That the people who were best at relationships were the people who practiced day after day, week after week, staying connected to the people they cared about. You know, talking on the phone, going for a walk, having coffee, doing whatever, playing basketball. The people who took those actions over and over again regularly were the people who stayed very connected and happy that way. So what we propose is that this is a practice that we can cultivate and that there are small actions that people can take. We have many stories of people who thought they were not good at relationships, that they would never have a happy life.

And then it changed. And many times it changed when they didn't expect it. We have a story about a man who didn't really have a good marriage and was a little distant from his children, he didn't have any friends. And then when he retired, he joined a gym and found this group of friends that became, for the first time, a kind of tribe for him. And that's just one example of how our lives take these twists and turns that we normally can't predict, that we don't expect. And many of those turns are going in positive directions.

The message that science tells us is do not give up this aspect of your life. Because many things can change at any age. (transition beeps and chimes)