Local community courses to enhance well-being and pro-sociality: evidence from a randomized controlled trial

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.05.021

Commentary

This study was supposed to be an investigation to confirm the effectiveness of a program to improve community well-being. Despite the wealth of research on the correlates of such programs, little is known with certainty about how interventions can effectively increase community well-being.

The program has been tested against the hypothesis that it is cost-effective, can be implemented on a large scale, and can teach people to lead happier lives. Rooted in self-determination theory, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of a scalable social psychological intervention aimed at increasing happiness and pro-sociality in the general adult population.

Manual courses are run by non-professional volunteers (lay people) in local communities and have been implemented in over 26 countries. The results of the program show a strong positive causal relationship between participants' subjective well-being and pro-sociality (compassion and social trust), while lowering measures of mental health.

The effects of the course were found to persist for two months after the treatment. The treatment was compared to other wellbeing interventions to illustrate the limitations and impacts of the intervention design and its implications for the use of wellbeing as a consequence of public policy more generally.