Long read: A 6-year research project found a surprisingly simple route to happiness

For over a decade now, a cottage industry has been built around researching what makes human beings happy. Plenty has been written on this subject and we at Marcellus have contributed our two cents to this body of work through our 2020 bestseller “The Victory Project: Six Steps to Peak Potential”. However, this piece in the Washington Post says that new research from Cornell University points to a simple but powerful hack which can make all of us happy. Dana Milbank writes for the Post:

“Results from a six-year study out of Cornell add to some already compelling evidence that the most efficient route to human flourishing may be a lot simpler than we’ve been making it. While there’s no magic solution when it comes to human well-being, the evidence suggests a relatively easy exercise in articulating one’s purpose can have outsize mental and even physical health benefits….Cornell psychologist Anthony Burrow, who runs the university’s Purpose and Identity Processes Lab, found that with relatively little effort he was able to bring out an entirely different side of Gen Z.

Since 2019, Burrow and his researchers have selected about 1,200 college and high school students to receive $400 no-strings “contributions” to use “to pursue what matters most” to them — something that benefits their community, family or even themselves. Before awarding the funds (eligible recipients are selected randomly, not on the merits of their proposals), he tests all applicants based on standard measures of well-being and emotions. Six to eight weeks after awarding the $400 — the time during which the recipients have to make their contributions — he again tests those who received the funds and those who didn’t.

The preliminary results…are unambiguous. At the start, both groups typically scored the same on psychological measures. Eight weeks later, those who received the contributions scored significantly higher than the non-recipients on all measures: latent well-being, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of feeling needed and useful, and affective balance (a measure of positive and negative emotions).

Burrow’s takeaway: “Invite people to think about a contribution they want to make and help them [to] make that contribution, and that person may walk around with greater purpose than if they hadn’t done that.”

This is good news for a supposedly lost generation, because it suggests that deep down Gen Zers are as purposeful as members of previous generations and that it doesn’t take much to cultivate that innate sense. It’s an exercise parents can replicate to cultivate purpose in their own kids (more about that below) and schools could adopt at little cost to cultivate happier and more driven students.”

The Washington Post piece then digs deeper into the “Why” behind this “How” i.e. why is it making a contribution to others makes us feel more purposeful and happier? This second level insight is just as interesting as the first insight:

“In these grim times, the most efficient path to living a contented life may be to put ourselves through the same simple exercise of thinking about our purpose and then taking a step — even a modest one — toward fulfilling it. It’s not a replacement for other mental health interventions, but the surest path to happiness for many of us could be as simple as this: Stop trying to be happy — and start figuring out how to make other people happy.

Burrow’s… results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that focusing on purpose may be the most efficient way to achieve the flourishing we all seek.

“Let’s stop confusing humanity to think that it’s more difficult than it really is, and give them much clearer guidelines of how to do this,” says psychology professor Todd Kashdan, who runs the Well-Being Lab at George Mason University. “Maybe what we need to reduce all the difficulties internally that people have is … what Anthony’s doing, which is basically have people outward-focused on what do you want to do with your limited time today, this week, this month. And through that, you find yourself not obsessing so much about the chatter that’s going on between your ears.”

Interestingly, much of what psychologists Todd Kashdan at George Mason University and Anthony Burrows at Cornell are finding in their research is similar to what Simon Sinek said in his famous YouTube talk and blockbuster bestseller “Start with Why”:

“In one study, Kashdan had patients with social anxiety disorder describe what they saw as their purpose in life and then had them monitor their efforts toward this purpose every day. After two weeks, they exhibited higher self-esteem, sense of meaning and positive emotions. Days when they reported significant progress toward life purpose were also days with significant boosts in well-being….

In a sense, social science is confirming what the philosophers knew. Aristotle believed that the good life required living with purpose. Nietzsche wrote that “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

The 20th-century psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who believed that his sense of purpose helped him to survive Nazi concentration camps, wrote that happiness “cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”

Research in recent years has found that a greater sense of purpose is associated with reduced inflammation under stress, lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, slower age-related cognitive decline, and greater longevity, as well as improved perseverance, resilience and mood, and the ability to face stressful situations with less negative emotion….

“So much of the pop psychology stuff is ‘focus on yourself, focus on your own personal growth, focus on your needs, focus on your self-care, focus on you, you, you,’” says psychologist Kendall Cotton Bronk of Claremont Graduate University. Instead, she argued, “the real path to happiness is focusing on others, on how you can contribute to others and their well-being. … What we need to be focusing on is contributing in meaningful ways, and often that will lead to the happiness that you’re seeking.””

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Note: The above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is also an FME (Non-Retail) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Additionally, Marcellus is also registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission (“US SEC”) as an Investment Advisor.