Summary: A new study has shown that only seven days of small daily acts of kindness and gratitude can significantly improve emotional well -being. In the Big Joy project based on the web, almost 17,600 participants from all over the world made micro-acts such as sharing happy moments and listing the things for which they are grateful.
The results revealed higher positive emotions, less stress and better sleep, especially among younger, black, Hispanic and socially disadvantaged people. This is the first large -scale study that demonstrates that a short and low effort intervention can provide significant benefits of mental and physical health.
Key facts:
Brief and effective: only a few minutes per day for 7 days of improved well -being, sleep and stress levels. Equity in impact: the youngest, black, Hispanic and disadvantaged groups saw the greatest benefits. Scalable model: minimum time commitment means greater accessibility for broader populations.
Source: UCSF
The researchers, led by UC San Francisco, tested the effectiveness of a welfare intervention based on the one -week website, known as Big Joy Project.
This consisted of daily micro-acts, which included asking someone to share a fun, inspiring or proud moment, making a list of gratitude and performing a kind act to cheer up someone’s day.
Approximately 17,600 people from around the world participated: most were from the United States, Canada and Great Britain (71%), women (84%), White (74%), with at least some university education (94%).
What they discovered:
After the seven -day intervention, participants reported higher levels of well -being and positive emotions, and a stronger belief that the behavior itself can promote happiness. They also reported a decrease in stress, and the best quality of health and sleep quality. The participants of the participants, blacks and Hispanics, and socially disadvantaged benefited more.
Why does it matter:
Welfare improvements are associated with a lower risk of future mental illness and better physical health. “People with greater well -being are less likely to develop chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, and have reduced mortality in healthy and non -healthy populations,” said Senior Author Elissa Epel, PhD.Web Bellbeing Interventions that last several weeks and take 3 to 4 hours a week to complete favorable results. But this is the first time that a brief intervention has shown such strong benefits, and could work for more people.
“Many people lack time, motivation and resources to commit to these longer programs, and they are more likely to abandon,” said the first author Darwin Guevarra, PHD, who is also affiliated with the University of Miami.
“We were excited to get positive results in a program that required only a few minutes every day for a week.”
Financing and Disseminations: Smith and Callahan are from the non -profit organization that partially financed the Big Joy project.
On this news of happiness and psychology research
Author: Suzanne Leigh
Source: UCSF
Contact: Suzanne Leigh – UCSF
Image: The image is accredited to Neuroscience News
Original research: open access.
“Climbing a brief intervention of digital well -being (the Big Joy project) and the sociodemographic moderators: study prior to the publication of a single group” by Elissa Epel et al. Journal of Medical Internet Research
Abstract
Scale of a brief digital well -being intervention (The Big Joy Project) and sociodemographic moderators: study prior to the publication of a single group
Background:
Emotional well -being interventions lead to better mental and physical health. However, most of these interventions have been tested in relatively homogeneous samples, with few interventions large enough to examine whether key sociodemographic factors affect the results.
In addition, the barriers to the commitment include access and high load of participants. We develop a brief web -based intervention to address these barriers and prove the effects between sociodemographic groups.
Aim:
The study aims to examine the effectiveness of a brief low -load digital welfare intervention to improve emotional well -being and health -related results in a diverse global sample. Investigate how key sociodemographic factors, such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, education, financial tension and the subjective social state, the moderate intervention effects. The objective is to identify which groups benefit the most, informing the scalability and public health potential of digital well -being interventions.
Methods:
We carry out a study prior to the publication of a single group that covers from 2022 to 2024 using a welfare intervention of a multicomponent week based on the web, which requires 5 to 10 minutes of daily activity (the Big Joy project).
Using a sample of global convenience recruited through the web -based open registration, we evaluate the changes prior to the post in emotional well -being, positive emotions, the agency of happiness, perceived stress, self -informed health and sleep quality.
At the beginning, participants also reported sociodemographic characteristics. We use linear models of mixed effects to examine the changes prior to the post in the results and sociodemographic moderators.
Results:
The sample (n = 17,598) consisted of individuals from 169 countries and territories, with broad representation between sociodemographic groups; However, the sample was predominantly white, feminine and had at least a secondary or university education.
After the intervention, the participants showed significant increases in the size of the effect within the subjects in emotional well -being (Dz = 0.48; p <.001), positive emotions (Dz = 0.45; p <.001) and agency of happiness (dz = 0.44; p <.001).
In addition, participants showed a decrease in perceived stress (Dz = –0.35; p <.001) and an increase in self -informed health (Dz = 0.07; p <.001) and the quality of sleep (Dz = 0.15; p <.001). There was a clear dose response pattern among the results: participants who participated in more daily practices showed greater improvements.
There was a strong social disadvantage pattern moderating these effects, with groups that experienced greater social disadvantages that show greater benefits in most results. For example, those with a lower education, greater financial tension or a lower subjective social status and those that are identified as individuals of racial or ethnic minority groups (black or Hispanics) showed greater improvements in the well -being results.
In addition, younger people had greater increases in emotional well -being and greater decreases in perceived stress compared to older people.
Conclusions:
A brief and low intensity intervention showed significant improvements in well -being and stress, comparable to those observed in longer and more intensive digital well -being interventions. Sociodemographic groups that have a higher risk of poor mental health benefited more from the intervention, highlighting their scalable impact potential on public health. It will be important to test this intervention with a random controlled test design.
