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Strength of evidence for five happiness strategies

Nature Human Behaviour volume 8, pages 1656–1657 (2024)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 12 August 2024

The Original Article was published on 20 July 2023

arising from Folk & Dunn Nature Human Behaviour 7, 1697–1707 (2023)

Folk and Dunn’s recent review1 sought to determine the effectiveness of common ‘happiness’ enhancement strategies: gratitude, social connections, exercise, mindfulness/meditation and time in nature. In their unregistered review, the authors concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support the promotion of these happiness strategies, which was picked up by major international media outlets. Critical limitations of Folk and Dunn’s review included their conceptualization of ‘happiness’, the search terms used, their inclusion criteria, their lack of adherence to established systematic review protocols and, ultimately, their interpretation. These limitations lead us to believe that Folk and Dunn’s conclusions are premature and misleading.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Eli Puterman & Gabriel Zieff

  2. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Lee Stoner

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  1. Eli Puterman
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  2. Gabriel Zieff
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  3. Lee Stoner
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E.P. drafted the reply. All authors contributed text and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Eli Puterman.

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E.P. is a voluntary member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Human Behaviour thanks Christian Gluud and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Puterman, E., Zieff, G. & Stoner, L. Strength of evidence for five happiness strategies. Nat Hum Behav 8, 1656–1657 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01954-0

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