Sonja Lyubomirsky

University of California, Riverside | UCR · Department of Psychology

Both scientists and laypeople have become increasingly concerned about smartphones, especially their associated digital media (e.g., email, news, gaming, and dating apps) and social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat). Recent correlational research links substantial declines in Gen Z well-being to digital and social media use, yet other wor...

Previous research has found only a small, inconsistent association between hedonic consumption and subjective well-being, often attributed to individuals adapting to the happiness gains from their purchases. Given that diverse experiences can reduce or avert hedonic adaptation, we hypothesized that variety in hedonic spending would be associated wi...

MDMA is a recreational drug commonly used to enhance euphoria, but it is also used in non-party settings with self-insight or social connection intentions. Yet, little is known about whether distinct consumer groups are formed based on consumption setting and intention. We aimed to characterize different types of recreational MDMA users based on co...

Decades of research have demonstrated that social connection is fundamental to health and well-being. The benefits of connection are observed with both close and distant others, within both new and established relationships, and even with exchanges that unfold over a relatively short timeframe. Because social connection is fundamental to well-being...

MDMA is a stimulant-like drug with distinctive empathogenic effects. Its pro-social effects, such as feelings of connectedness, may contribute to both its popularity as a recreational drug and its apparent value as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, little is known about the behavioral processes by which MDMA affects social interactions. This in...

Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental research demonstrates that subjective well-being (e.g., positive emotions, life satisfaction) relates to, precedes, and leads to employee success on numerous work-related outcomes. We extend these findings by considering how organizations might improve worker well-being. Accordingly, we propose the Wo...

Experiments prompting people to engage in more prosocial behavior (e.g., acts of kindness) or simple social interactions (e.g., acting extraverted) have both shown promise in boosting well-being. However, little is known about how much the impact on well-being depends on the type of interpersonal interaction (i.e., social vs. prosocial) or on other...

Psychological well-being, characterized by feelings, cognitions, and strategies that are associated with positive functioning (including hedonic and eudaimonic well-being), has been linked with better physical health and greater longevity. Importantly, psychological well-being can be strengthened with interventions, providing a strategy for improvi...

Experiments prompting people to engage in more prosocial behavior (e.g., acts of kindness) or simple social interactions (e.g., acting extraverted) have both shown promise in boosting well-being. However, little is known about how much the impact on well-being depends on the type of interpersonal interaction (i.e., social versus prosocial) or on ot...

Unlabelled: Gratitude activities have been shown to increase well-being and other positive outcomes in numerous experiments to date. The current study tested whether self-directed gratitude interventions that vary by type (i.e., social vs. nonsocial) and format (i.e., long-form letters vs. shorter lists) produce differential benefits. To that end,...

Numerous investigations to date have established the benefits of expressing gratitude for improved psychological well-being and interpersonal relationships. Nevertheless, the social dynamics of gratitude remain understudied. Do the effects of gratitude differ when it is expressed privately, communicated directly to the benefactor one-to-one, or sha...

Unlabelled: Previous research has identified a robust connection between prosociality and happiness, suggesting that kindness has both hedonic and eudaimonic benefits-in the short term and in the long term. By contrast, our experiment aimed to examine people's momentary eudaimonic feelings while engaging in kind acts for others. To that end, we ra...

Subjective well-being is characterized by relatively frequent positive emotions, relatively infrequent negative emotions, and high life satisfaction. Although myriad research topics related to subjective well-being have been explored – from how it should be measured to how it affects physical health – a key finding is that social connections are cr...

Although gratitude is typically conceptualized as a positive emotion, it may also induce socially-oriented negative feelings, such as indebtedness and guilt. Given its mixed emotional experience, we argue that gratitude motivates people to improve themselves in important life domains. Two single-time point studies tested the immediate emotional and...

Objective Prosocial behavior has been linked to improved physical health, but the biological mechanisms involved remain unclear. This study tested whether a 4-week kindness intervention could reduce expression of a stress-related immune response gene signature known as the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA). Methods In a divers...

Psychedelic science has generated hundreds of compelling published studies yet with relatively little impact on mainstream psychology. I propose that social psychologists have much to gain by incorporating psychoactive substances into their research programs. Here I use (±)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as an example because of its docum...

An inadvertent consequence of advances in stem cell research, neuroscience, and resuscitation science has been to enable scientific insights regarding what happens to the human brain in relation to death. The scientific exploration of death is in large part possible due to the recognition that brain cells are more resilient to the effects of anoxia...

Well-being science has largely focused on subjective well-being, defined in terms of life satisfaction and positive and negative emotions. However, some philosophical accounts of well-being, like “eudaimonia” accounts, emphasize the attainment of goods, such as having deep social relationships and achieving one’s creative potential. We supplement p...

COVID-19 has infected millions of people and upended the lives of most humans on the planet. Researchers from across the psychological sciences have sought to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 in myriad ways, causing an explosion of research that is broad in scope, varied in methods, and challenging to consolidate. Because policy and...

Gratitude science often conflates the processes of actors recalling and sharing gratitude, as well as neglecting to study targets (benefactors receiving gratitude) and witnesses (those witnessing gratitude). We explored the roles (actors, targets, and witnesses) and processes (recalling, sharing, receiving, and witnessing) involved in gratitude exc...

An empirically supported approach to increase one’s happiness (or well-being) is to engage in brief, self-directed positive activities in daily life. However, such positive activities may fail to bring lasting changes in well-being due to hedonic adaptation. Notably, previous research has shown that variety is a key factor that can slow hedonic ada...

What are the most important predictors of subjective well-being? Using a nationally representative publicly available dataset from the Midlife in the United States project (N = 4,378), we applied linear regression, which often relies on assumptions of linearity and a priori interactions, and advanced machine learning approaches, which maximize pred...

Both scientists and laypeople have become increasingly concerned about smartphones, especially their associated digital media (e.g., email, news, gaming, and dating apps) and social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat). Recent correlational research links substantial declines in Gen Z well-being to digital and social media use, yet other wor...

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a psychostimulant known for producing positive subjective effects and for enhancing social functioning and social connection in both clinical and recreational settings. Over the past two decades, scientists have begun to study the psychological effects of MDMA through rigorous placebo-controlled experimen...

Background: Escalating healthcare expenditures highlight the need to identify modifiable predictors of the use and costs of healthcare and sickness benefit transfers. We conducted a prospective analysis on Danish data to determine the costs associated with flourishing as compared to the below threshold level of flourishing. Methods: We used data f...

Although chemistry is a well-known, sought-after interpersonal phenomenon, it has remained relatively unexplored in the psychological literature. The purpose of this article is to begin articulating a theoretically grounded and precise definition of interpersonal chemistry. To that end, we propose a conceptual model of interpersonal chemistry cente...

Recent correlational research links smartphone and social media use to lower well-being among Gen Z youth, yet other work suggests that the effects are small and unnoteworthy. However, these findings rely heavily on self-report. How accurate is self-reported smartphone time and are objectively measured screen activities associated with lower well-b...

Since the first confirmed case in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has spread quickly, infecting 165 million people as of May 2021. Since this first detection, research has indicated that people contracting the virus may suffer neurological and mental disorders and deficits, in addition to the respiratory and ot...

This paper considers the principles of a functionalist perspective with regard to positive emotions. We discuss various ways that positive emotions have been studied historically and how these approaches bear on discussions of function. We then cover more recent attempts to categorize positive emotions and make recommendations for future endeavors....

Measures of well-being have proliferated over the past decades. Very little guidance has been available about which measures to use in particular contexts. This chapter provides a series of recommendations, based on the present state of knowledge and the existing measures available, of which measures might be preferred in which contexts. The recomm...

Philosophers, psychologists, economists, and other social scientists continue to debate the nature of human well-being. The authors argue that this debate centers around five main conceptualizations of well-being: hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, desire fulfillment, eudaimonia, and non-eudaimonic objective list well-being. Although each type...

This edited volume explores conceptual and practical challenges in measuring well-being. Given the bewildering array of measures available and ambiguity regarding when and how to measure particular aspects of well-being, knowledge in the field can be difficult to reconcile. Representing numerous disciplines including psychology, economics, sociolog...

Positive valence system (PVS) deficits are increasingly recognized as important treatment targets for depression and anxiety. Emerging behavioral treatments designed to upregulate the PVS show initial promise; however, neural mechanisms underlying these approaches remain unknown. This study investigated neural reward-processing-related changes foll...

Recent theory suggests that members of interdependent (collectivist) cultures prioritize in-group happiness, whereas members of independent (individualist) cultures prioritize personal happiness (Uchida et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5(3), 223-239 Uchida et al., 2004). Thus, the well-being of friends and family may contribute more to the emot...

Objective Prosocial behavior can improve psychological well-being and physical health. However, the underlying biological mechanisms that mediate the relationship between prosociality and health remain unclear. In this pre-registered experiment, we tested whether a 4-week kindness intervention could slow leukocyte telomere shortening and increase w...

To slow the transmission of COVID-19, countries around the world have implemented social distancing and stay-at-home policies—potentially leading people to rely more on household members for their sense of closeness and belonging. To understand the conditions under which people felt the most connected, we examined whether changes in overall feeling...

Objective: Prosocial behavior can improve psychological well-being and physical health. However, the underlying biological mechanisms that mediate the relationship between prosociality and health remain unclear. In this pre-registered experiment, we tested whether a 4-week kindness intervention could slow leukocyte telomere shortening and increase...

Could 10 min of gratitude per week have the potential to change the trajectories of young students' lives? With over 1,000 ninth- and tenth-grade students, we tested whether a simple 4-week classroom-based gratitude intervention would prompt increases in well-being and motivate students to become better people and attain better grades. Over the cou...

Background Anxiety and depressive disorders are often characterized by perceived social disconnection, yet evidence-based treatments produce only modest improvements in this domain. The well-established link between positive affect (PA) and social connectedness suggests that directly targeting PA in treatment may be valuable.MethodA secondary analy...

In two pre-registered studies, we tracked changes in individuals’ feelings of social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both studies capitalized on measures of social connection and well-being obtained prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by recruiting the same participants again in the midst of the pandemic’s upending effects. Study 1 included a s...

Although research suggests that Eastern, collectivist cultures do not benefit as much from practicing gratitude compared to Western, individualist cultures, the reasons for these differences remain unclear. In a single time-point randomized controlled intervention, participants in India (N = 431), Taiwan (N = 112), and the U.S. (N = 307) were rando...

Measures of well-being have proliferated over the past decades. Very little guidance has been available as to which measures to use in what contexts. This paper provides a series of recommendations, based on the present state of knowledge and the existing measures available, of what measures might be preferred in which contexts. The recommendations...

The Sustainable Happiness Model (SHM) has been influential in positive psychology and well-being science. However, the ‘pie chart’ aspect of the model has received valid critiques. In this article, we start by agreeing with many such critiques, while also explaining the context of the original article and noting that we were speculative but not dog...

Research suggests that both performing prosocial behaviors (i.e. acts of kindness towards others) and simply recalling them can increase well-being. Do performing and recalling prosocial behaviors impact well-being equally? To investigate this question, we conducted a study with a 2 × 2 design in which participants were randomly assigned either to...

In light of cultural differences in conceptions of happiness, we investigated whether members of independent (vs. interdependent) cultures would benefit from prosocial behavior when self-focus is highlighted (vs. when other-focus is highlighted). In a 1-week randomized controlled intervention, U.S. (N = 280) and South Korean (N = 261) participants...

Research in personality psychology has remained predominantly correlational. For example, 3 decades of research demonstrate a robust cross-sectional relationship between extraversion and positive affect. A handful of studies, however, have examined this link experimentally, showing that extraversion boosts positive affect over short durations. If t...

Objective: Mõttus (2016) argues that effects should not be attributed to traits if they are driven by particular facets or items. We apply this reasoning to investigate the relationship between facets and items of extraversion and well-being. Method: We analyzed five cross-sectional datasets (total N = 1879), with facet- and item-level correlati...

Social and personality psychology have been criticized for overreliance on potentially biased self-report variables. In well-being science, researchers have called for more “objective” physiological and cognitive measures to evaluate the efficacy of well-being-increasing interventions. This may now be possible with the recent rise of cost-effective...

Research on awe has grown exponentially in recent decades; however, few studies have considered whether awe-inspiring experiences also inspire other emotions. In two studies, we explored whether interventions targeting awe also evoke other discrete emotions. Additionally, we considered two constructs that may be associated with increases in each em...

Why does kindness matter? When you act kindly toward others, the benefits go both ways. Small, thoughtful acts—like helping, sharing, listening, or teaching—can change both how you are perceived and how you see yourself. When children are encouraged to be kind, their peers want to spend more time around them. Not only does kindness strengthen socia...

The experiences of mothers and fathers are different in ways that could affect their well-being. Yet few studies have comprehensively examined gender differences in parents' well-being. In the current research, we investigated such gender differences in a large representative sample (Study 1a; N = 13,007), in a community sample using validated well...

Gratitude has been associated with better physical health. Yet, surprisingly little research has experimentally investigated the capacity of gratitude to motivate individuals to eat more healthfully. In Study 1, among undergraduate students (N = 327) attempting to achieve a healthy eating goal, state gratitude following a writing activity significa...

This book examines the range of new theories, research, and applications in the most generative areas of positive psychology, at the dawn of a new wave of positive psychology scholarship—one that is increasingly sensitive to real-world issues, adversity, culture, and context. In the 17 years since the inception of the movement, the field of positiv...

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) has been the dominant measure of life satisfaction since its creation more than 30 years ago. We sought to develop an improved measure that includes indirect indicators of life satisfaction (e.g., wishing to change one's life) to increase the bandwidth of the measure and acc...

Empirical research demonstrates a relationship between happiness and career success. For example, happy people receive higher earnings, exhibit better performance, and obtain more favorable supervisor evaluations than their less happy peers. Researchers have posited that success leads to happiness, but Boehm and Lyubomirsky reviewed the relevant re...

Although a great deal of research has tested the longitudinal effects of regularly practicing gratitude, much less attention has been paid to the emotional landscape directly following engagement in gratitude exercises. In three studies, we explored the array of discrete emotions people experience after being prompted to express or recall gratitude...

Positive emotions are highly valued and frequently sought. Beyond just being pleasant, however, positive emotions may also lead to long-term benefits in important domains, including work, physical health, and interpersonal relationships. Research thus far has focused on the broader functions of positive emotions. According to the broaden-and-build...

A functional analysis of prosociality considers how predispositions for prosocial behavior prompt, reinforce, and propagate kind behaviors in the real world. To examine the effects of practicing, receiving, and observing everyday prosociality—as well as the mechanisms underlying these effects—we randomly assigned employees in a Spanish corporate wo...

As many happiness seekers inevitably discover, human beings are remarkably susceptible to hedonic adaptation—the process of becoming accustomed to positive life changes. Even if individuals observe short-term increases in happiness, how can they avoid the natural erosion of happiness over time? Can anyone ever stay happier? In the present chapter,...

Cultural stereotypes and considerable psychological research suggest that Russians are less happy and more stoic than Americans and Westerners. However, a second possibility is simply that cultural norms deter Russians from displaying happiness that they actually feel. To test this second possibility, three studies compared the emotional inhibition...

Context: Prosocial behavior is linked to longevity, but few studies have experimentally manipulated prosocial behavior to identify the causal mechanisms underlying this association. One possible mediating pathway involves changes in gene expression that may subsequently influence disease development or resistance. Design, setting, participants:...

Social interaction among employees is crucial at both an organizational and individual level. Demonstrating the value of recent methodological advances, 2 studies conducted in 2 workplaces and 2 countries sought to answer the following questions: (a) Do coworkers interact more with coworkers who have similar well-being? and, if yes, (b) what are th...

Humility is a core psychological process theoretically marked by low self-focus, secure identity, and balanced awareness of strengths and weaknesses. We began with a consensual definition of humility before theoretically unpacking it. First, using 25 samples and 2622 adults, we developed the Brief State Humility Scale, which demonstrates strong con...

We explored a counterintuitive approach to increasing happiness: Imagining time as scarce. Participants were randomly assigned to try to live this month (LTM) like it was their last in their current city (time scarcity intervention; n = 69) or to keep track of their daily activities (neutral control; n = 70). Each group reported their activities an...

Background: Research suggests that the positive affect system may be an important yet underexplored treatment target in anxiety and depression. Existing interventions primarily target the negative affect system, yielding modest effects on measures of positive emotions and associated outcomes (e.g., psychological well-being). The objective of the p...

The value of gratitude has been recognized for centuries, but researchers have only begun to investigate gratitude within the past few decades. In a short time, considerable evidence has accumulated that gratitude is associated with superior mental health outcomes – both the absence of mental illness and the presence of psychological well-being. In...

Prosocial behaviors typically benefit those who perform them but can create mixed emotions in recipients. Yet, how does prosociality affect the well-being of those who merely observe it? The current study aimed to answer this question by experimentally prompting employees to perform prosocial acts at work (Givers), be the recipient of such acts (Re...