The Action for Happiness course delivers big benefits
An independent study has found that the 'Exploring What Matters' course enhances wellbeing, reduces symptoms of mental ill-health and encourages pro-social action.
The Exploring What Matters course has been subjected to a full Randomised Controlled Trial from by leading academic experts. The results show that, compared to a control group, the course delivers large and statistically significant benefits in terms of:
- Improvements in subjective wellbeing
- Reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Enhanced levels of compassion and social trust
About the Course
Exploring What Matters is an 8-week, volunteer-led intervention for local groups and has already been run in hundreds of communities across the UK and around the world. The course is offered on a 'donation of your choice' basis so it remains accessible to everyone, regardless of their situation.
About the Study
The Randomised Control Trial evaluation was carried out by Prof Jan-Emmanuel de Neve (Oxford University), Dr Christian Krekel (London School of Economics) and Dr Daisy Fancourt (University College London) as part of the evidence programme of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing. The Action for Happiness project team was led by Keith Cowley and Dr Mark Williamson.
The study found the course increases average Life Satisfaction by a whole point (+1.0) on the 0-10 scale. This is greater than the increases in Life Satisfaction seen from becoming partnered (+0.59) or finding employment (+0.7), when compared with findings from other cross-sectional studies. This increase also appears to last (and even increase) when measured again two months after the course.
The full academic paper can be found here:
Study Citation
Krekel, C., Neve, J-E., Fancourt, D., Layard, R. (2021), A local community course that raises wellbeing and pro-sociality: Evidence from a randomised controlled trial,
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 188, 2021, Pages 322-336, ISSN 0167-2681
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.05.021
Life-Changing Benefits"The course was life-changing for me and lots of the others too. We made new friendships and took positive actions in our lives based on what we discussed. We have continued to meet up and support each other. One lady has actually become my best friend! Last weekend we got together for the launch of a new local Community Centre which lots of us had been working on. It's so great to feel part of something meaningful and to be connected to others near where I live. I am so much happier and none of this would have happened without that course."
Shirley (course participant) ~ 2018
Organising a Randomised Controlled Trial takes a lot of careful planning and coordination. We are incredibly grateful to Keith Cowley who managed the project on behalf of Action for Happiness and without whom this wouldn't have been possible.
We are also very grateful to all the team members and volunteers who helped with collecting the surveys and saliva samples from course participants at each of the measurement sessions, including: Alex Nunn, Andrew Piper, Ewa Lee, Fiona Beighton, Jade Morley, Natasha Parker and Tanya Barrett.
Many thanks too to Martin Goss, Laboratory Manager at The William Harvey Research Institute for his help in storing the biomarker samples during the project.