CAMBRIDGE: Most people want to life a long and happy life, but only some are able to achieve it. And so, for decades, one question has often been thought of: What truly makes a happy life? Is it money, success, or fame?
Researching this, the Harvard Study of Adult Development— one of the longest and most detailed studies on human happiness, which was done for 85-years — set out to find the answer. And what it revealed may change the way you look at your own life!
When participants were asked what they believed would make them happiest, most pointed to money or fame. But during the research as the years passed — and people’s lives unfolded — the truth was discovered in a simpler manner. The study found that the people who lived the happiest, healthiest, and longest lives weren’t those who were the richest or the most famous. Instead, the happiest people were the ones who had good relationships with others.
The Harvard Study began in 1938, during the Great Depression, following the lives of 268 Harvard sophomores. Over the years, it expanded to include 456 men from Boston’s inner-city neighbourhoods, thus including people from different social and economic backgrounds only to figure out what’s the secret to true happiness.
As decades passed, researchers followed participants through marriages, failures, illnesses, careers, parenting, and aging. What emerged was a powerful, consistent truth: Relationships shape our lives more than anything else.
Today, more than 1,300 descendants of the original participants are still part of the study, helping scientists understand how love, stress, and connection shape health across generations.
The study shows that despite most people thinking that money or fame would make them happy, the reality is that it is strong, supportive relationships — with partners, family, friends, and community — that have a profound impact on how happy we are as a person.
Our relationships are the single most powerful predictor of long-term happiness and health, the study found.
How? Well, when the going gets tough it is these relationships that offer us comfort, meaning during ordinary days, and protection against both emotional and physical decline over the years.
