DEVELOPING NEW KNOWLEDGE ON HAPPINESS

EHERO also adds to knowledge about happiness by doing novel research, with a focus on under-researched topics and on new methods.

Research Topics

Current subjects of novel research by EHERO are:

Happiness Indicator

This project is a combination of a self-help website and a long-term follow-up study on the effects of life-choices on happiness. This project started in the Netherlands in 2011 under the name GeluksWijzer and has since attracted more than 100.000 participants. The project was developed together with the health insurance company VGZ.

The site is presented as a set of ‘tools for working on your happiness’. Participants receive an e-mail periodically with a link to their personal page on a website, on which they record how happy they feel that day and over the last month. Optionally they can also complete a ‘happiness-diary’ of the previous day. Participants receive instant feedback in the form of a comparison with the average ratings of similar participants and a time graph of their rating. Repeated use of the Happiness Indicator appears to be followed by a slight rise in happiness. Detail about this effect study is available here.

This technique can also be used for the assessment of effects on happiness of various interventions, such as individual life-coaching or organizational change. Large-scale follow-up is relatively cheap and control groups can be easily selected from the large pool of participants.

The Happiness Indicator is available in English and can be easily translated to other languages. All versions can draw on the same data pool. EHERO welcomes colleague investigators who want to use this tool. More details on the method and cost are available here

Past Research

Commissioned Research

EHERO does research for other parties, provided that this will yield new knowledge on happiness and that EHERO can publish the results independently.

Welcomed themes

  • Happiness of workers
  • Happiness of customers, such as patients, residents and students
  • Happiness in places, such as areas and buildings

EHERO is particularly interested in the development and evaluation of new techniques for monitoring happiness, such as electronic diaries and face recognition

Examples of commissioned research are:

  • Development of the Happiness Indicator technique in cooperation with the health insurance company VGZ
  • Development of a ‘city scan’ for the municipality of Schagen in the Netherlands
  • Investigation into effects of lottery playing for the State Lottery in the Netherlands

For information about costs and conditions, contact academic director dr. Martijn Burger: m.burger@ese.eur.nl

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