The Health & Happiness study is now open for enrollment until June 15, 2025

The Health and Happiness Study will be the first global study to collect large-scale data from surveys, smartphones, and smartwatches to study happiness and wellbeing in daily life.

The project is led by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Oxford in collaboration with the University of Warwick, the University of Saskatchewan, Avicenna, and Garmin Health.

Using state-of-art machine learning and artificial intelligence models including causal neural networks, the study will reveal novel insights into the dynamics, determinants, and downstream effects of human happiness.

Findings from the study will be used to inform the design and development of public policies, consumer products, and research agendas to promote quality of life in the years ahead.

Study timeline and rewards

Why study wellbeing?

Wellbeing and happiness are intrinsically valuable. We all aspire to be happy, to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Income, health, longevity, fitness – these are valuable only in as much as they promote wellbeing. So much of what we do is directed towards protecting, sustaining, and improving our own wellbeing, and the wellbeing of others.

Wellbeing is also increasingly being used as a measure of societal progress following decades of dissatisfaction with economic indicators including GDP. Wellbeing data is now being collected and used by governments and NGOs around the world to inform national and international policymaking agendas

The COVID-19 pandemic, global rise in loneliness, and declines in adolescent mental health have generated additional interest and urgency in studying the dynamics of determinants of happiness and wellbeing in daily life.

What do we hope to learn?

Here are a few of the research questions we are interested in…

  • What are the dynamics of human happiness and wellbeing in daily life?

  • How much of what makes us happy is within our control?

  • What are the biometric correlates and predictors of wellbeing?

  • Can we predict future periods of (un)happiness using data from smartwatches and smartphones?

  • What patterns of behaviors are most predictive of wellbeing?

  • What is the relationship between physical activity, exercise, and wellbeing?

  • To what extent is the quality of our subjective experience shaped by our expectations?

  • To what extent does tracking our happiness over time change our behavior?

  • Do we really know what makes us happy?

  • Do we each have a fixed set point of happiness?

  • (How) can we become happier by changing our behavior?

  • What are the dynamics of hedonic adaptation over time?

FAQs

    • The study will last for 8 weeks in total. For best results, we encourage all participants to continue until the end of the study. Nonetheless, you are free to drop out at any time.

    • About 3 to 5 minutes.

    • We ask that you complete three short surveys per day. Each survey will take about 1 minute each.

    • At the beginning and end of the study, and once per week on Sundays, we also ask that you complete slightly longer surveys of 2 to 3 minutes each.

    • All surveys are voluntary. You do not have to respond to every survey to participate in the study.

    • We take data privacy very seriously. All of our data collection protocols are GDPR compliant and have been approved by Institutional Review Boards at Harvard University, Warwick University, and the University of Saskatchewan.

    • All data collected throughout the course of the study will be encrypted, anonymized, and stored on secure servers using privacy-protected anonymized IDs.

    • Only authorized members of the research team and administrators will have access to data collected throughout the course of the study. Your data will never be shared with Garmin, Harvard, or any institutional partner without your explicit consent and approval.

    • The research team will never share, publish, or make publicly available any data that could be used to personally identify you.

    • You can choose to drop out of the study and delete your data at any time.

    • Yes. It is not mandatory to have a Garmin device to participate in the study.  

    • If you consent to share data from your Garmin smartwatch, the following is a list of variables that may be collected depending on your device:

      • Steps, distance, timed activities, motion intensity, calories, BMR calories, body composition, intensity minutes moderate, intensity minutes vigorous, floors climbed, heart rate, heart rate variability overnight, wheelchair pushes, blood pressure, stress levels, stress score, sleep (advanced), VO2 max, fitness age, respiration, body battery, health snapshot, and pulse ox.

    • By sharing your Garmin smartwatch data, we will be able to give you more detailed insights about your health and happiness at the end of the study – specifically how your activities, sleep, and heart rate are correlated with your day-to-day emotional wellbeing.

    • It is again important to stress that this data is always anonymous, securely stored, and confidential. It will never be publicly available or personally identifiable.

    • Sharing location data from your smartphone is not required to participate in the study. However, we ask that you do so for two reasons.

      • A large body of research shows that our physical surroundings can influence our wellbeing. Without collecting location data, we will not be able to measure the importance of surrounding environments on day-to-day emotions. This can lead to false or misleading interpretations of study results.

      • Sharing continuous location data also enables sharing of smartphone battery use and screen time data. These are important variables to measure and monitor throughout the course of study given the important relationship between smartphones, screen time, and wellbeing.

    • No one other than the authorized research staff will have access to this data. All data collected throughout the course of the study will be encrypted, anonymized, and stored on secure servers using privacy-protected anonymized IDs. Your data will never be made public or personally identifiable. Sharing location data is also not expected to affect battery life to a significant degree.

  • If you are a participant and see a banner at the top of the app that says your study setup is incomplete, this may be due to the following:

    • You have not set notifications for the Health & Happiness app to “Persistent”

    • You have not set location sharing preferences for the Health & Happiness app to “Always”

    • You have not enabled data sharing with your Garmin device, or indicated that you do not have a Garmin device

    These settings are recommended, but not required. The app will continue to function properly without them, even if the banner continues to appear.

    • We plan to publish the first results in the beginning of 2026.

    • We plan to enroll 10,000 participants, primarily from Europe and North America.

    • Enrollment will remain open from March 15 until June 15, 2025.

    • The study is global and open to participants in all countries except China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, and Syria. 

    • We plan to recruit as representative of a sample population as possible. We will also conduct a series of tests to determine the representativeness and reliability of our findings to be included in all published results of the study.

  • Please submit all comments, questions, or concerns about the study using this feedback form. All feedback will be reviewed by the research team and addressed as soon as possible.

Want to get involved?

Click the button below to learn more about our research and join the global study.