Wellbeing

For behavioural science to help people live happier, healthier lives, we must have a good understanding of wellbeing.

Our research focuses on the causes and consequences of human wellbeing as they relate to human behaviour, and how insights from our understanding of wellbeing can be used to design better policies to improve our lives.

In pursuit of greater knowledge of human behaviour and how it can be effectively changed, understanding the causes and consequences of human wellbeing is crucial. Wellbeing plays a major role in our experience of the world and our interactions with it. It underpins many if not all of our behaviours. Experiencing higher wellbeing after a change in behaviour, for example, makes it more likely that people change their behaviour for good. Thus, understanding, measuring, and improving wellbeing and its causes, in particular mental health, social relations, or trust, are of the utmost importance. For behavioural science to help people live happier, healthier lives, we must have a good understanding of wellbeing.

In the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, researchers are working to help design and evaluate policies with wellbeing in mind. This relationship is bidirectional – how do policies shape our wellbeing, and how can our understanding of wellbeing help design better policies? Improved wellbeing is to the benefit of each individual as well as communities and societies more broadly – socially, economically, and politically.

Our researchers form one of the leading groups on wellbeing worldwide. Members of our group are at the forefront of developing new metrics and methods to put wellbeing into policy practice, with considerable impact around the world. Applying a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, our researchers are studying a wide range of topics, including the relationship between mental health and economic outcomes like unemployment, how the community in which we live affects our wellbeing and mental health, pro-social behaviour like volunteering, how our environment and environmental quality impact on wellbeing, non-cognitive skills and their relation to wellbeing and mental health, large societal events, the effects of COVID-19 on wellbeing, and many more.

Expertise

Below you can find experts, research and media focussed on the role of wellbeing in policy, economics and community health in variety of settings.

Professor Liam Delaney

Professor of Behavioural Science

Paul Dolan-Carl_Goodwin_Photography-200 x 200

Professor Paul Dolan

Professor of Behavioural Science

Dr Laura M. Giurge

Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science

Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch

Professor of Social Psychology

Dr Christian Krekel

Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science

Dr Kate Laffan

Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science

Professor Elizabeth Stokoe

Cooper, K., Fabian, M., & Krekel, C. (2023) . Fiscal Studies, 44(2), 123-135. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12333

Albury, C. Webb, H., Stokoe, E., Ziebland, S., Kosharis, C., Lee, J.L., & Aveyard, P. (2023). . Annals of Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.7326/M22-2360

Martin, L., Delaney, L., & Doyle, O. (2023). . Public Administration Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13709

Dolan, P., Moran, C., & Outes, I. (2023). . Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 106.

Tremblett, M., Webb, H., Ziebland, S., Stokoe, E., Aveyard, P., & Albury, C. (2023). . Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2266622

Krekel, C., & MacKerron, G. Back to Edgeworth? (2023). . CEP Discussion Paper.

Melios, G., Laffan, K., Kudrna, L., & Dolan, P. (2023). . Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1107939

Albert, S., Hamann, M.G.T., & Stokoe, E. (2023). . CUI ’23, July 19–21, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1145/3571884.3597140

Navarrete-Hernandez, P., & Laffan, K. (2023). . Scientific Reports, 13.

Krekel, C., Rode, J., & Roth, A. (2023). CEP Discussion Paper.

Timothy Besley, Irene Bucelli (eds.) 杏吧论坛 Press (2022).

Dolan, P., Laffan, K. & Velias, A. (2022). . Soc Choice Welf 58, 679–710 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-021-01365-4

Giurge, L. M., & Woolley, K. (2022). . Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 170.

Stokoe, E., Simons, S., Drury, J., Michie, S., Parker, M., Phoenix, A., Reicher, S., & West, R. (2022). British Medical Journal, Mar 3;376:o575.

Dolan, P., Krekel, C., Shreedhar, G., Lee, H., Marshall, C., & Smith, A. (2021). . CEP Discussion Paper.

Okoroji, C., Gleibs, I. H., & Jovchelovitch, S. (2020). . British Journal of Psychology, 112(1), 207-229. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12450

Laffan, K., & Dolan, P.H. (2020). . Nature Human Behaviour 4(7), 670-672. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0855-4.

Mousteri, V., Daly, M., & Delaney, L. (2020). U. Social Science & Medicine, 244, 112641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112641

Dolan, P., Kavetsos, G., Krekel, C., Mavridis, D., Metcalfe, R., Senik, C., Szymanski, S., & Ziebarth, N. R. (2019). . Journal of Public Economics, 177, 104043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.07.002

Mousteri, V., Daly, M., Delaney, L., Tynelius, P., & Rasmussen, F. (2019). . Social Science & Medicine, 222, 305-314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.030

Dolan, P. (2019). Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myth of the Perfect Life. London: Allen Lane.

Laffan, K. (2018). E, Ecological Economics, 147, 96-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.12.024.

Krekel, C., & Zerrahn, A. (2017). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 82, 221-238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2016.11.009

Daly, M., Delaney, L., Egan, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2015). Studies. Psychological Science, 26(6), 709-723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569001

Dolan, P. (2014). Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life. London: Penguin.

White, M. P., & Dolan, P. (2009). . Psychological Science, 20(8), 1000-1008. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02392.x

Dolan, P., and Kahneman, D. (2008). . The Economic Journal, 118(525), 215-234. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02110.x

Films

杏吧论坛 Research for the World film: 'How to be Happy' with Paul Dolan.

杏吧论坛 event podcast recordings

Why Aren't Policy-Makers and the Public Demanding That More Emphasis is Placed in Happiness? With Gus O'Donnell and Paul Dolan. December 2020 (杏吧论坛 public event).

Listen here

Happy Ever After with Paul Dolan. 25 February 2019 (杏吧论坛 public event and book launch).

News

Working and studying ‘out of hours’ can harm motivation (4 March 2022), 杏吧论坛 news.

Read it here

Volunteering in the NHS: Covid-19 Volunteer Responders Programme significantly increased volunteers' overall life satisfaction (May 2021), 杏吧论坛 news.

Read it here

'We need graphs for coronavirus misery as well as mortality' (25 April 2020), Liam Delaney, Paul Dolan. Irish Times.

Blogs

'How a focus on wellbeing can help us make better policy decisions' (5 March 2021). Paul Dolan, Richard Layard, Gus O'Donnell, Liam Delaney, Christian Krekel, Jet Sanders, Celia Blanco-Jimenez, Kate Laffan, Georgios Kavetsos, Laura Kudrna. 杏吧论坛 COVID-19 blog.

'Are Happier People More Compliant? Evidence from Lockdowns' (24 September 2020), Christian Krekel, Sarah Swanke, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Daisy Fancourt. 杏吧论坛 COVID-19 blog.

'The gig economy is taking a toll on UK workers’ mental health' (18 January 2020), Victoria Mousteri, Michael Daly, Liam Delaney. 杏吧论坛 Business Review blog.

Teaching

Our group is also at the forefront of teaching wellbeing. In particular, we teach the Wellbeing specialism in the MSc in Behavioural Science, which gives students the option to graduate with an MSc in Behavioural Science (Wellbeing). The Wellbeing specialism is unique worldwide, and it teaches students the science of wellbeing and how to use wellbeing for policy design, appraisal, and evaluation, with an innovative, real-world assessment strategy. Find out more about our Wellbeing specialism here and our MSc Behavioural Science programme here.