Are we measuring national success by the wrong metrics? The science behind wellbeing
Does wellbeing sound fluffy to you?
Let’s compare and contrast. Currently, much of the world uses Gross Domestic Product (GDP, a measure of an economy’s value created via goods and services over a fixed time period) to track national progress. And yet studies show that improving GDP per person doesn’t necessarily improve life satisfaction. Instead, countries like Bhutan are measuring Gross National Happiness whilst New Zealand unveiled a Wellbeing Budget last year focused on driving long-term health and wellbeing rather than short-term financial metrics. What evidence is there to support such moves, and what impact could this have on population-wide mental health? We explore these ideas in today’s article around the science of wellbeing.
Next week 👉 What’s your addiction? Exploring the science and humanity of substance use disorders
If you just landed here — this article is part of a ten-part series providing bite-sized expert insights on mental health topics (from world-class speakers via Zinc) and my thoughts on the role tech can play in addressing these themes (part of my day job at Kamet). All smart ideas come from the speakers and my peers — all poor phrasings and misunderstandings are my own.
What you’ll learn from this article 🧠
This week’s speakers were Nancy Hey and Vanessa King speaking about the science of wellbeing. The big ideas were around the role of policy in making lives better (and the evidence supporting wellbeing) and practical lessons learned around scaling culture change to focus on happiness. Our discussion focused on the impact of employment on mental health, and moving beyond ‘yoga and bananas’. Technology thoughts include the role of tech in translating evidence and research into practice, and the limitations of digital.
The big ideas 💡
- Nancy Hey: If policy is about making peoples’ lives better, we need evidence to work out what to do, implement solutions and measure if they achieve this objective. Wellbeing is about ‘how we’re doing’ as individuals, communities and the nation and how sustainable that is for the future. It’s a combination of objective and subjective measures (see the ONS Wellbeing Dashboard). Wellbeing is not the opposite of illness but about actively promoting the positive causes of wellbeing — you can have high wellbeing living with mental illness and vice versa. The pandemic has impacted multiple determinants of wellbeing proven by quantitative analysis. These include loneliness, and poor health, having someone to rely on / partner relationship and employment status. One of the biggest challenges in wellbeing-centred policy is not a lack of evidence supporting wellbeing interventions, but a broader issue linked to the the average 17 years it takes to translate evidence into practice.
- Vanessa King: it’s possible to scale the concept of a happiness-centred culture. Driving this cultural change, in their experience, required 1) going slow to go fast: testing and iterating which ideas resonate and what distribution methods work best 2) a combination of science (for credibility / impact) and simplicity (to drive action) e.g. the GREAT DREAM poster 3) provide practical and easy-to-access resources, ideally free to use and distribute 4) use ‘nudges’ to shift behaviour (e.g. calendar with daily actions) 5) the life-changing power of face-to-face connection 6) empowering and trusting supporters to use their products
Discussion points 🗪
- There is evidence to show that very few things impact wellbeing as much as employment. Unemployment is damaging and people do not ‘adapt’ to unemployment. However it affects people differently: men’s wellbeing is more affected by the incidence and duration of unemployment, wellbeing may decline further for younger people, and there can be impacts on the unemployed person’s spouse, especially female spouses. Similarly, re-employment leads to higher wellbeing but it depends on the type of work. The increase is smaller if you transition into a job with less prestige, lower pay, lower autonomy, or is temporary rather than permanent. This is especially important in the context of the pandemic: 25% of people found work helped them cope with the stress as it provides purpose, relationships, flow.
- How do you move beyond ‘yoga and bananas’? (h/t to Hannah Keal for this phrase!) Whilst access to exercise and healthy food are impactful on wellbeing, the evidence suggests these pale in comparison to common causes of poor workplace wellbeing, such as poor management. It’s important to create a systemic environment that supports wellbeing. Analysis of the earnings per share for the 100 best companies to work for vs. stock market peers showed overperformance over a 26 year period vs. stock market peers. Linked to the above, one choice struggling employers can make to maintain wellbeing to put workers on lower hours / part time rather than layoffs to maintain some level of job security and the positive wellbeing benefits associated
Technology thoughts 💻
- Can tech help reduce the evidence to intervention gap? Data-led initiatives like the Health Data Research Hubs aim to use health data to both support research and drive better innovation. Venture studios like Flagship Pioneering who incubated Moderna (developer of a COVID vaccine) hire researchers to develop new commercial entities to scale the impact of the latest research. Technologies like Causaly help biomedical researchers sift through the wealth of insights generated by researchers to help bring new innovation to life. As well as performing search, it uncovers hidden links between biomedical causes allowing a more comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of increasingly complex fields
- What are the limitations of digital ‘movements’? Technology is often seen as the great hope for teaching us about wellbeing, managing ill-health, but it has its limits & the human connection remains important. This could be a sign that we need to be better-focused in how we apply tech to the space e.g. helping people do cognitive reappraisals. Equally, we should be aware of the digitally excluded to ensure that technologies don’t widen systemic inequalities / age ranges
Reading list 📚
- Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices
- Short-time working: part of the solution to an economic and wellbeing crisis?
- Unemployment, re-employment and wellbeing
- Mental Health and Employers: The Case for Investment
- OECD Better Life Index
- World Happiness Report
Speaker bios 🔈
- Nancy Hey is the Director of the What Works Wellbeing Centre, a leading voice on wellbeing in the UK and Internationally. Nancy is a global leader in the field of wellbeing and is the founding Director of the Centre. Nancy is also a qualified development coach specialising in emotions and is a passionate advocate for learning and development.
- Vanessa King is a board member at the charity Action for Happiness and author of the book Ten Keys to Happier Living. She plays an active role, speaking nationally and internationally and translating the latest psychological research into practical action to help individuals, organisations and communities enhance their wellbeing and resilience. Vanessa is one of a small group of people globally to have completed a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, studying under Martin Seligman and many of the other leaders in the field
