World’s longest study finds key to happiness

The Harvard study, which began in 1938, studied participants over three generations for 84 years to find out what makes a happy and meaningful life.

If you were asked to put the most important ingredients to be happy in a big bag, what would be the top three items you would reach for? Money? Vacations? Success? A life full of leisure and ease?

The pursuit of happiness has been a tricky and intriguing question, so has been the answers. However, a team of scientists led by Harvard psychiatrist Robert Waldinger tracked hundreds of people for over 80 years to find out what makes a happy and meaningful life.

The results are now for all to see.

724 participants studied for 84 years

The Harvard Study of Adult Development began in 1938 and started with 724 participants. Out of these, 268 participants were undergraduate students at Harvard College and the remaining 456 were 14-year-old boys who had grown up in some of the most troubled homes in Massachusetts.

More recently, the study incorporated the spouses of the original men, and more recently more than 1,300 descendants of the initial group. By the time the study was concluded, it had expanded to include three generations in the pursuit to find out how to live a happy life.

During these 85 years, the young boys turned into old people and their lives had so far been through various stages from teenage turmoil to marital bliss to parenting worries. Researchers gathered everything from their exercise and drinking habits to marital satisfaction and biggest worries.

They regularly collected the health records of the participants to gauge their mental and physical wellbeing, and even met them face-to-face often to observe and analyse their behaviours and living conditions. Periodically, they underwent brain scans, blood tests and checks of stress hormones.

Participants often were asked to fill questionnaires to find out if they were happy, if their life was meaningful and if they had a reason to get up in the morning. More than eight decades later, Waldinger, who is also a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has co-written 'The Good Life' with the study's associate director Marc Schulz where they have put together case studies with the latest psychological research to share what they have learned about happy life.

What is the key to happiness?

The study after its extensive research has finally come up with one thing that they conclude is the key to a happy life and that is - good relationships. In the world's longest scientific study of happiness, it was found that of all the happiest and healthiest participants, good relationships was a factor that stood out everywhere.

"We think it's because relationships help us manage stress," Waldinger was quoted as saying in a report published in TODAY.com. "Following thousands of lives over decades, we see that every life has difficulties. So the question is not: Do you have challenges? The question is: How can you meet those challenges? Do you have the resources that you need to meet those challenges? We say that one of the strongest resources to meet challenges is having good relationships," he said in the report.

The researchers, however, emphasized that by good relationships, they did not necessarily mean partners. It does not mean that one has to be married or living with someone to be happy. After all, there are enormous examples of loveless marriages and people feeling so much happier living alone.

Friends, family, loved ones - basically anyone who one can talk with and rely on, and share a warm relationship with is enough for a happy life. People who don't have that support can end up chronically stressed, which can make their health suffer.

Harder way is better way

The study also found out that people felt happiest when they had done the hard things. Yes, the biggest satisfaction came from doing the things that looked monumental and almost impossible to scale. "If life brings challenges that are interesting, that allow us to feel like we've accomplished something, that's very satisfying," Waldinger was quoted. "Wealth and privilege don't buy you happiness."

The study also finds out that having casual conversations even with strangers or getting a positive response from someone else can make individuals feel good.

Warm relationship at work works

The study found that it made a huge difference if people had at least one friend in their office. Since a large part of waking hours every day is spent at work, it is important to have a warm relationship in an office environment also for a happier state of being. "This is backed by really good research that shows that having a personal friend at work makes a huge difference in our well-being," Waldinger said in the report.

Never too late to be happy

As the study followed people from their teen years to their old age, it found that there was no deadline when it came to becoming happy. Even the people who always thought that they would never find true friends or relationships, found an unexpected new group of friends in their 60s and 70s and that led to happiness.

So, if you think you are too old to find happiness, you must think again.