Global happiness study to find what gives us a boost

The science of happiness has spawned hundreds of thousands of studies, surveys, books and reviews, but what reliably lifts the spirits, to what extent, and who benefits most are still far from nailed down.

- Ian Sample

Now, psychologists have drawn up plans for the planet's largest happiness experiment to thrash out once and for all what really gives people an emotional boost, how effective different strategies are and whether the benefits are the same worldwide.

"Our goal is for this to be the largest, most comprehensive, most diverse experiment on happiness ever conducted," said Prof Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

In the past six months, more than 1,000 scientists from more than 70 countries submitted proposals for the project. In December, an expert panel whittled these down to seven categories of interventions, each including three or four different approaches, which will be tested in the Global Happiness Megastudy.