Krekel et al. (2021) Have a Course that Raises Wellbeing

Christian Krekel, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Daisy Fancourt, and Richard Layard, “A Local Community Course that Raises Wellbeing and Pro-Sociality: Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 188: 322–336, 2021.

• Many correlates of wellbeing have been identified, but can we teach people, in an economical manner, how to be happier? Adaptation might preclude any sort of long lasting benefit, even if we could figure out ow to teach people to be happier.

• On the other hand, not all domains of wellbeing are subject to rapid adaptation. Social connections and pro-social behaviors are among those elements of wellbeing that are adaptation-resistant.

• Introducing... “Exploring What Matters”: An eight-week course aimed at the adult population in general; the course is coordinated by lay people (great expertise not required) and “manualised," that is, it is easy to become an effective coordinator.  

• Hundreds of Exploring What Matters courses have been conducted (by August 2020), with a total of more than 5000 participants. The courses have been in 25 countries, though most of them have been in the UK. "'Exploring What Matters' is run by Action for Happiness, a registered charity in England, which was launched in 2011. Its patron is the Dalai Lama, who helped to launch the course in London in 2015 [p. 323]."

• The course material includes mindfulness, gratitude, building good habits, social connections…

• Krekel et al. undertake a randomised control trial (RCT) for six Exploring What Matters courses conducted in London, 2016-2017, n=146. The people who were randomly chosen to be controls were not abandoned, but rather, were placed in a later course. The initial data were collected before people knew whether they were in the treatment group or the control group.

• When participants sign up for the free course, they are asked (but not required) to make a donation to cover the course costs of about 90 pounds. The course meets once a week for eight weeks, with each individual session lasting 2 to 2.5 hours.

• "The course aims at building (i) autonomy .. using a weekly mindfulness exercise, gratitude exercise, and personal reflection, supported by... scientific evidence on that week’s theme; (ii) relatedness by facilitating interpersonal connections and social trust...; and (iii) competence by enabling participants to experience for themselves how behavioural changes to daily routines can make differences to their and other people’s wellbeing, using goal-setting and social commitment tools to help translate motivation into action."

• The researchers look at 15 outcome measures (four on subjective wellbeing (SWB), two on mental health, three on pro-sociality, and six biomarkers collected via saliva samples, such as cortisol levels).

• The course brought about a large increase in SWB on average, like a point higher on a ten-point scale. Mental health improved, but not to the same extent that cognitive behavioral therapy brings. Compassion and social trust rose, too. [These findings have been replicated in a broader sample.] There were no significant change in biomarkers.

• These improvements are highly cost-effective, and scalable!

• Since this course evaluation was undertaken, the course has been revamped (now 6 weeks, recommended donation reduced to 60 pounds) and renamed: Happiness Habits.

• Action for Happiness is great, you should check out their website. Here's their monthly action calendar.