March 04, 2024

123: The World’s Longest Study of Happiness | Marc Schulz

17 minutes

Marc Schulz is the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an 85-year study of individuals and families. He is also the author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.

Marc earned an undergraduate degree from Amherst College and a Ph.D. from California Berkeley.

In this episode we discuss the following:

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed more than 2,000 people spanning more than 85 years. The one finding that stands out above all others: Relationships keep us happier and healthier through our lives.

Relationships help us navigate stress, overcome challenges, deal with emotions, figure out our path, and connect us with our past. Relationships are also where we experience our most joy, and they also predict our health and happiness.

The risk of mortality associated with loneliness is about the same as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

One of the biggest problems with loneliness is that it’s quite prevalent. In the United States, in a given week, 20-50% of adults report being lonely. Given that loneliness is as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes/day, the surgeon general talks about this is a public health crisis.

In the past, people had to get out of their house to see whether the Jones’s where better off than them. But now we can socially compare ourselves from our phones. And most of us come out of those comparisons feeling worse about ourselves.

By going more virtual and focusing on efficiency we miss out on informal connections, like talking to people in the hallway.

Just as physical fitness is important predictor of health and happiness, so too is social fitness. By thinking about our social lives in terms of what’s working, and then prioritizing our positive social relationships, we can improve our happiness.

When people in their 80s discuss their regrets, most regrets are centered on relationships. For example, losing contact with friends, or not being as kind as they could have been to the people they loved.

Social fitness is all about making time for our friends and loved ones. Eating lunch with them, going on walks with them, or calling them. As the key finding from the 85-year Harvard Study of Adult Development shows, relationships keep us happier and healthier through our lives.

Follow Marc

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-schulz-20663222a/

Website: https://www.brynmawr.edu/inside/people/marc-schulz

The Good Life Book: https://amzn.to/41ShAe3

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