13 Happiness Pioneers Held a 3-Hour Video Call and Put Other People First

Thirteen of the people who helped build the science of happiness spent three hours on a video call in January 2026, comparing what their careers and their own lives had taught them about living well.⁴ Their main conclusion, now published as a reflective paper in the Journal of Happiness Studies, is one most of us can act on this week: invest in the people around you.¹²

The paper, titled “Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Well-Being Science from Several of Its Pioneers,” was co-authored by Lara Aknin, a professor of social psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, along with Säde Stenlund of Harvard University and Kelsey O’Connor, a senior researcher at Luxembourg’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.¹ The participants included well-known names such as Richard Layard, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Martin Seligman.²

A conversation, not an experiment

This paper is a discussion among experts, not a new study. The researchers did not measure anyone’s habits or health, and Yahoo’s coverage describes it as a summary of a gathering of pioneers, not a rigorous empirical investigation.⁴³ The 600 years mentioned in much of the coverage is the group’s combined research and professional experience, not 600 years of data.¹

The points below are the researchers’ own views, drawn from the wider body of happiness research and from their lives. Well-being science found its footing in the 1970s, and Aknin co-edits the annual World Happiness Report.¹³

The big one: other people

Relationships came out on top. “Happiness emerges from a symphony of factors, but if I had to pinpoint one secret to happiness, relationships with other people might be it,” Aknin said in the university’s announcement.¹

The bar to start is lower than you might think. “We know that having just one person you can count on is extremely consequential,” she said. More relationships, and more communities you feel part of, add to that sense of well-being.¹

Several of the researchers said that after seeing the evidence from their own work, they now make a point of spending more time with loved ones.¹³ So 13 experts spent three hours on a video call and concluded, in part, that they should spend more time with the people they love.

Other things the pioneers say help

• Meaningful work. The group listed work that feels meaningful as a strong contributor to a good life.¹
• Money, up to a point. Once basic needs are met, more money doesn’t mean more happiness.¹
• Small, deliberate practices. Several researchers said they use their own science through gratitude, savoring good experiences, listening more deeply, volunteering and being more socially engaged.¹

Generosity fits into that picture too. Aknin notes that happiness predicts valuable outcomes, including the motivation to help others. “Generosity is not zero-sum,” she said.¹

How much is up to you

The SFU release points to some of the leading models, which suggest roughly 10% of happiness comes from life circumstances such as where you live, your age, or your job or relationship status, while as much as 40% comes from how you choose to spend your time.¹⁵ That split is an older, contested estimate, and it is not a finding of this paper.

Aknin sees room for hope in it. “That leaves a lot of opportunity for people who may be more innately pessimistic to start practising research-backed strategies like meditation or gratitude that might help them see the world in a more positive way,” she said.¹

The pioneers also stressed that happiness is not about feeling good all the time. Generally happy people aren’t constantly happy, and a good life isn’t reserved for natural optimists or people with ideal circumstances. In their telling, it can be built through conscious choices, self-awareness and adapting as life changes.¹