Does Happiness Improve Health? Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Happier people are healthier, but does becoming happier lead to better health? In the current study, we deployed a comprehensive, 3-month positive psychological intervention as an experimental tool to examine the effects of increasing subjective well-being on physical health in a nonclinical populat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2020-07, Vol.31 (7), p.807-821
Main Authors: Kushlev, Kostadin, Heintzelman, Samantha J., Lutes, Lesley D., Wirtz, Derrick, Kanippayoor, Jacqueline M., Leitner, Damian, Diener, Ed
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
British Columbia
Clinical trials
Female
Happiness
Health Status
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Personal Satisfaction
Prevention programs
Psychological intervention
Quality of Life
Risk behavior
Self Report
Surveillance systems
Well being
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Summary:Happier people are healthier, but does becoming happier lead to better health? In the current study, we deployed a comprehensive, 3-month positive psychological intervention as an experimental tool to examine the effects of increasing subjective well-being on physical health in a nonclinical population. In a 6-month randomized controlled trial with 155 community adults, we found effects of treatment on self-reported physical health—the number of days in the previous month that participants felt healthy or sick, as assessed by questions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Questionnaire. In a subsample of 100 participants, we also found evidence that improvements in subjective well-being over the course of the program predicted subsequent decreases in the number of sick days. Combining experimental and longitudinal methodologies, this work provides some evidence for a causal effect of subjective well-being on self-reported physical health.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797620919673