Why Harvard is opening a happiness center

https://www.statnews.com/2016/04/26/harvard-opening-happiness-center/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=267224356&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8yRlr4KxCPt45vGo1RtFSub4kKq1gx9ZlAJLXil4r5w1I7UYu1LV6nxR8xhRiLoTucvCH4ExlrmRAjuQCGpo_gCNbtQg&utm_content=267224356&utm_source=hs_email Not to be a killjoy, but those happiness studies you hear about may be flawed Mainstream media’s doing it wrong. That’s what a new systematic review in Nature Human Behaviour says about how the media portrays research pitching mindfulness and exercise as paths to greater happiness. The authors point out squishiness in scientific evidence behind findings that may prompt news coverage. (For the record, a “happiness” search of the STAT archives turned up only one story saying happy people might not live longer and another reporting Harvard opened a happiness center.) Here’s what the researchers found after scrutinizing 532 studies looking at happiness after expressing gratitude, enhancing sociability, exercising, practicing mindfulness or meditation, and increasing exposure to nature. Almost 95% of experiments that upped exposure to nature, exercise, or engaging in mindfulness or meditation lacked sufficient statistical power to detect notable benefits. Only 57 studies were pre-registered or had well-powered experiments that tested these strategies on subjective well-being in healthy individuals. Happy now?