You can create a happier world by giving. Let us introduce you to our recommended charities, explain how to support further research, and highlight promising organisations.
Happier Lives Institute
You can create a happier world by giving. Let us introduce you to our recommended charities, explain how to support further research, and highlight promising organisations.
Let's work together to create a happier world. The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing. Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia, which impacts over 1.2 ...
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
About 1 in 2 Liberians report being victimised by theft in the past year. But ...
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
The majority of mothers (83%, it’s 95% for fathers) in low income countries ...
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
Severe malnutrition isn’t history. It’s not relegated to disasters, famines, ...
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
There are nearly a billion children in the world with clearly unsafe levels ...
You can create a happier world by giving. Let us introduce you to our recommended charities, explain how to support further research, and highlight promising organisations.
With limited resources, how should we decide between saving lives, reducing poverty, or treating mental illness? Our Key Ideas page explains how. First we set out the crucial ideas very briefly and then explore each of those ideas in greater depth.
With limited resources, how should we decide between saving lives, reducing poverty, or treating mental illness? Our Key Ideas page explains how. First we set out the crucial ideas very briefly and then explore each of those ideas in greater depth.
Let's work together to create a happier world. The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing. Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
See a list of our upcoming events as well as recordings of our talks at previous conferences, workshops, and seminars.
Let's work together to create a happier world. The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing. Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
Our 2022-23 Annual Review describes the research we conducted in 2022 and 2023, highlights the impact this has had, and reflects on our first two years of recommending charities. It concludes by laying out our plans for 2024 and how you can support our work.
We are recruiting Board Members who will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of our organisation and make a meaningful impact on a global scale. If you have experience or passion for strategy, governance, fundraising, finance, networking, or wellbeing research, we want to hear from you.
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
Depression is strongly linked with lower subjective wellbeing (Clark et al., ...
Last updated: November, 2023
Problem
Malaria is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by parasites that ...
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
Depression is strongly linked with lower subjective wellbeing (Clark et al., ...
Last updated: December, 2024
Problem
Poverty is strongly associated with lower subjective wellbeing (Sacks et al., ...
Last updated: November, 2023
Problem
Parasitic infections from worms affect around a billion people in mostly low- ...
In this report, we provide an overview of all our evaluations to date as well as our conclusions for Giving Season 2023.
Overview of our 2024 charity recommendations
This video gives a high level overview of our 2024 recommended ...
Our approach
The goal of our charity research is to find the most cost-effective ways to improve people’s lives, ...
When assessing the quality of the evidence for an intervention or charity, we use the following broad ...
Overview
The goal of our cost-effectiveness analyses is to find the most cost-effective interventions and ...
HLI strives to be rigorous and transparent in our work. This page logs updates to our cost-effectiveness estimates.
HLI strives to be rigorous and transparent in our work, but we don’t always get it right – sometimes, we blunder. This page logs instances where we don’t think we’ve reached our ideals and focuses on broad issues that impact how others perceive and trust our work.
Our research agenda sets out our research priorities.
We are recruiting a communications manager who will oversee all aspects of external and internal communications and is responsible for promoting HLI's recommendations and methodology to our target audiences. They will also lead communications during fundraising campaigns. We are open to flexible working arrangements, such as full-time or part-time positions, as well as varying levels of experience.
On the 22nd of March 2023, GiveWell posted an “Assessment of Happier Lives Institute’s Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of StrongMinds”. Here, we present our responses. First, a general response from Michael. Second, a technical response from Joel.
See a list of our upcoming events as well as recordings of our talks at previous conferences, workshops, and seminars.
We aim to produce rigorous and useful research for decision-makers. In order to do that better, it would really help us to know what you thought of our work in 2022.
A collection of recommended papers, articles, books, and reports from 2022.
This year, four of our publications have been awarded prizes. In this post, we provide a summary of each piece and why the judges rated them so highly.
Our charity recommendation for 2022 is StrongMinds, a non-profit that provides group psychotherapy for women in Uganda and Zambia who are struggling with depression.
EA Global will bring together a wide network of people who have made helping others a core part of their lives. ...
EAGxBerlin 2022 will bring together ambitious students and professionals to learn, connect and collaborate to ...
We’re delighted to welcome three new members to our team: Dr Lily Yu (Grants Strategist), Dr Ryan Dwyer (Senior Researcher), and Rachel Strate (Operations Manager).
EA Global will bring together a wide network of people who have made helping others a core part of their lives. ...
The inaugural Wellbeing Research & Policy Conference will bring together scholars and policymakers to discuss ...
We’re excited to introduce you to our 2022 cohort of summer research fellows who will be joining us in July and August for a seven-week paid internship. Their projects will help to deepen our understanding of the nature and measurement of wellbeing and identify cost-effective ways for individuals and governments to increase it.
The event will bring together over 500 members of the EA community to connect with each other, and to explore the ...
Comparisons across species are not straightforward because there are significant differences between animals with ...
Sam and Joy participated in a fireside chat discussing their work on effective mental health and wellbeing.
The ...
EA Global will bring together a wide network of people who have made helping others a core part of their lives. ...
We discuss the progress we made in 2021, the lessons we've learned, and our plans for 2022.
See a list of our upcoming events as well as recordings of our talks at previous conferences, workshops, and seminars.
Our Summer Research Fellowship provides an opportunity for students and recent graduates to gain hands-on research experience and receive personal mentoring from our research team.
We are recruiting an Operations Manager who will ensure the organisation runs smoothly across a variety of domains including finance, charity compliance, charity registration, human resources, fundraising support, logistics, and the development of internal processes and policies. They will implement policies and procedures, focus on efficiency, and address organisational bottlenecks if and when they arise.
Learn more about our story so far, starting from Michael Plant's seminal talk at Effective Altruism Global in 2017.
We strongly encourage our summer research fellows to work on one of the suggested topics listed on this page as we believe that making progress on these questions will be particularly impactful.
Our Summer Research Fellowship provides an opportunity for students and recent graduates to gain hands-on research experience and receive personal mentoring from our research team.
Let's work together to create a happier world. The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing. Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
Back after a three-year hiatus, EAGxBoston welcomes members of the effective altruism community to our 2022 ...
EAGxOxford 2022 will bring together students and young professionals interested in EA to connect, learn, and ...
Our 2021 Annual Review describes the research we conducted in 2021, highlights the impact this has had, and reflects on some of the lessons we have learned. It concludes by laying out our plans for 2022 and how you can support our work.
Our 2020 Annual Review describes the research we conducted in 2020, highlights the impact this has had, and reflects on some of the lessons we have learned. It concludes by laying out our plans for 2021 and how you can support our work.
Our reading list recommends a range of books and articles to help you deepen your understanding of the field of wellbeing research.
You can create a happier world by giving. Let us introduce you to our recommended charities, explain how to support further research, and highlight promising organisations.
Learn more about our latest vacancies and read our general advice on finding a high-impact career focussed on global wellbeing.
Learn more about our staff, trustees, advisors, fellows, and contributors.
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The progress studies community has had a lot of discussion about technology, economics, history, and politics. However, there is no consensus on the moral basis for valuing or pursuing “progress,” and there are key open questions about how progress is to be judged and measured, who should benefit from it, and what type of progress we should pursue. The goal of this workshop is to reach a consensus on what major moral/ethical questions are at the foundations of a study of progress, and what broad answers to these questions have been proposed.
With limited resources, how should we decide between saving lives, reducing poverty, or treating mental illness? Our Key Ideas page explains how. First we set out the crucial ideas very briefly and then explore each of those ideas in greater depth.
We’re excited to announce that we’ll be running our summer research fellowship again this year. The fellowship provides students and recent graduates with the opportunity to gain hands-on research experience and receive personal mentoring from our research team.
We conduct theoretical research on the measurement of wellbeing and applied research to identify the most cost-effective funding opportunities.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to help provide anonymous web analytics for our ...
A collection of recommended papers, articles, books, and reports from 2020-21.
Joel McGuire presented our comparison of the cost-effectiveness of cash transfers and psychotherapy in terms of ...
We're delighted to welcome Samuel Dupret (Research Analyst), Joy Bittner (Operations Manager), Barry Grimes (Communications Manager), and Dr Caspar Kaiser (trustee).
This year, we are running our first Summer Research Fellowship. We received over 60 applications for the eight-week programme and we’re excited to be joined by six of the brightest up-and-coming talents in the field of subjective well-being research.
This hybrid workshop was held over two days at the University of Oxford to discuss topics covered in The Science ...
We’re looking for Summer Research Fellows to contribute to our research agenda.
Panelists:
Joel McGuire, Research Analyst at Happier Lives Institute
Laura B. Rawlings, Lead ...
In this post, we summarise our 2020 annual review, introduce our 2021-22 research agenda, and announce our latest vacancies.
Joel McGuire presented our systematic review and meta-analysis on the impact of cash transfers on subjective ...
Michael Plant provides a brief overview of the main approaches to aggregating individual advantage - ...
Recordings from a two-day workshop on fundamental issues in the measurement of subjective wellbeing.
In several countries, lockdowns have reduced the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and thereby of deaths from ...
Even though mental disorders account for a considerable burden of disease globally and appear to strongly impact ...
Our strategy has developed significantly since we launched in June 2019. While we continue to be interested in mental health, we are not just a charity evaluator for mental health interventions. We see ourselves as a ‘meta’ org conducting global priorities research.
Michael Plant presented his working paper on life satisfaction theories.
Michael Plant presented his working paper on the comparability of subjective scales.
We are delighted to announce that Joel McGuire has joined the Happier Lives Institute as a Research Analyst. He will be working mainly on our applied research projects.
The Happier Lives Institute was formed in late 2018 by a group of committed individuals interested in the subjects of happiness, mental health and effective altruism. Our broad aim was to find the best ways to improve global happiness.
Effective altruists want to do as much good as possible. But how should we measure how much good different ...
Michael Plant delivered a ‘prequel’ to his talk at EA Global: London 2017 to address theoretical concerns about ...
All plausible moral theories agree increasing the happiness of currently existing people during their lifetimes is ...