10 studies on happiness, closeness and everyday life

The smell of coffee, a conversation after school or permission to turn off a camera in a work meeting: small events can make a noticeable difference to a day. Research helps us look more closely and distinguish an interesting pattern from a universal recipe for happiness.

This selection draws on Greater Good Science Center’s 2021 review. Its ten themes remain below, with links to the papers and details of what was studied. These findings come from particular settings: they can suggest questions about our experience without determining how everyone should feel.

In an experience-sampling study involving 6,680 people, feeling that life was unpredictable was associated with more subsequent savouring of pleasant moments. The researchers also conducted two experiments, using a film and leaflets on a city street. Prompts about uncertainty increased savouring intentions or behaviour.

Attention to something pleasant can appear even amid difficult circumstances, alongside worry and uncertainty. Gregory and colleagues’ paper appeared online in 2021 and in a journal issue in 2023.

During an attention task, researchers recorded EEG activity and asked participants about their thoughts. Being off task and moving freely between topics showed different electrophysiological patterns. Freely moving thoughts were accompanied by greater alpha power at frontal electrodes.

Not every instance of “I was lost in thought” is the same. The measurements concerned thought dynamics and EEG; links with creative outcomes require separate study. This research on thought dynamics offers a more precise description of our varied inner experience.

Researchers adapted the Fast Friends procedure for 301 middle-school students. Prepared questions and exchanging personal answers helped increase closeness and form friendships, including between students of different ethnic backgrounds.

A familiar possibility emerges here: conversation needs time and a chance to hear more than the usual “How are you?” Sharing personal details should remain voluntary and proceed at each person’s pace. The school Fast Friends study describes the conditions in more detail.

A sample of 246 US adults reported their daily experiences. They noticed an average of about nine opportunities for empathy each day and more often empathised with close others’ positive emotions than strangers’ distress. Everyday empathy was generally associated with greater well-being and prosocial behaviour.

That average belongs to this sample and method of observation. You might simply notice how you respond to a friend’s delight or a colleague’s difficult day. Depow, Francis and Inzlicht examined these everyday opportunities.

In a study of 4,057 people across 21 countries, fears of giving or receiving compassion were associated with greater depression, anxiety and stress alongside perceived COVID-19 threat. The researchers compared self-reports, so the result describes relationships between experiences.

It raises an important question: what makes accepting support difficult when it is needed? Matos and colleagues explored how resistance to compassion related to perceived threat.

In a four-week field experiment, 103 employees took part in virtual meetings with cameras on or off. Camera use was associated with greater daily fatigue, which in turn related to engagement and willingness to speak.

For a team, this invites discussion about when video is necessary, whether self-view can be hidden and how to leave breaks between meetings. The camera-and-fatigue study reveals a cost of a familiar working condition that colleagues can discuss together.

Across three studies involving 1,232 participants in total, greater intellectual humility was associated with more willingness to investigate questionable COVID-19 information. The studies examined intentions and actual behaviour, including fact-checking and seeking more information.

“I might be wrong” leaves room to check a source, date and complete message. Koetke, Schumann and Porter describe this investigative tendency. In practice, it takes shape through checking a particular claim.

In field studies with theatre audiences, people were randomly assigned to complete surveys before or after a performance. Afterwards, they reported greater empathy for groups portrayed, shifts in attitudes towards the issues raised and increased charitable donations.

This invites a closer look at how a story on stage affects an audience. The design compared survey timing among theatre attendees, which matters when interpreting the findings. Rathje and colleagues studied particular productions and responses following them.

In San Francisco’s school district, assignment to an ethnic-studies course used a rule around a 2.0 grade-point-average threshold. The analysis compared students near that threshold. Assignment increased the probability of high-school graduation; additional analyses indicated improvements in engagement and further-education enrolment.

The course study is interesting for its attention to content in which students may recognise their social experience. The findings concern this course and students near the specified threshold.

Using data from 152 countries, researchers found associations between happiness, sustainability indicators and responsible behaviour. Happier countries could also consume more. The picture is therefore more complex than assuming that well-being necessarily conflicts with environmental care.

Sameer and colleagues analysed aggregate national data. Their focus was relationships between country-level indicators, accounting for a range of differences between countries.

These papers offer no single secret, but plenty to observe: how you accept support, what drains you at work or which conversation you would like to continue. Choose one question and return to it after a few ordinary days. Research-minded curiosity can then become part of your own experience without requiring happiness on schedule.

Greater Good Science Center’s original 2021 selection.