Were you lucky enough to win the lottery this weekend? If so, step away from the bubbles and cancel your appointment at the Porsche dealership and instead hear what Professor Bruce Hood has to say.

According to Hood, Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at Bristol University, hitting the jackpot is not all it's cracked up to be. Why? The world-leading psychologist and happiness expert says, "Research shows that the brain only registers change, rather than stable states. We quickly get used to a lottery win and therefore struggle to sustain happiness." In other words, when wealth becomes the norm, money quickly loses its lustre.

This is one of the many insights into spending five years reviewing psychological data on what makes humans feel good.  Drawing on his career teaching psychology at Bristol University, MIT and Harvard, where he was a colleague of the noted Simon Pinker, the Canadian has distilled everything he knows about living joyfully into seven key lessons. 

Hood started researching human happiness in 2018 and launched University of Bristol’s Science of Human Happiness Course, the first of its kind in the UK. He wasn't sure if anyone would attend, because students received no extra credit for it. But when he turned up, the hall was full.

The lunchtime course is now the university's best attended. Over ten weeks, Hood teaches students how to distinguish between happiness and success, and why money only fails to provide the emotional pay-off we think it will. There are modules on damaging social comparisons, on nurturing  restful mind states and sleep. 

Not only is it Stress Awareness month, exam season is also around the corner, so this year RGS launches its first SPRING Wellbeing Week aimed at helping to improve mental health and how to live well. Activities include circus skills, physical activity, relationships, nutrition and staying connected. The whole week will also have a focus on giving, where students will be able to donate to good causes as well as give thanks to people they feel make a difference in their lives. 

We hope this week will help students find moments of calm as well as joy!

Professor Hood's seven steps to happiness

1. It’s not (all) about you

When we think less about ourselves, we become more aware of what others need. Take new parents. Hood says that when you have dependants you care about, you automatically shift out of your self-centred bias - and when babies can’t tell you what is wrong, you have to figure out what’s going on. Why are they crying? What is it they need? This thought process puts things into perspective.

2. Stay connected

Humans thrive in groups and languish in isolation - the areas in the brain activated by physical pain are also triggered by the pain of social loss. A 2023 report in the US estimated the consequences of poor social relationships for older adults to be a 29 per cent increased risk of heart disease, 32 per cent for stroke and 50 per cent for dementia. Hood recommends “reaching out to someone you haven’t spoken to in a long time and telling them you’ve been thinking of them”.

3. Avoid negative comparisons

A study of athletes at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics showed that bronze medal winners were happier than silver medal winners because they were relieved to have made it onto the podium. Silver medal winners were more likely to be consumed by thoughts of what might have been. “We are quite strange,” Hood says. “There’s also a Harvard study that showed people would prefer to earn $50,000 a year as long as their colleagues earned $25,000. When they were offered $100,000, with their colleagues earning $250,000, most rejected it.” The key is to enjoy what you achieve on its own terms.

4. Look on the bright side

Considering basic metrics such as life expectancy and quality of life, Hood says that most of us have it much better than our ancestors. Yet a recent YouGov poll revealed that 65-70 per cent of US and UK respondents thought the world was getting worse. Hood says this can be fixed by adopting what he calls an “optimistic attributional style” to rationalise bad events. In other words, “dispute, dismiss, undermine or reinterpret any setback to frame it in a more positive light. The point is not to be paralysed by failure.” Don’t take it too far, though. “If you never take responsibility, you become reckless. Optimism that denies reality makes you delusional. Basically, you become Boris Johnson.” Beware.

5. Control your attention

“Human attention started to wander about 10,000 years ago when we began farming,” Hood says. “It served our purpose to begin thinking about tomorrow’s weather. But these days we find it hard to focus because there is so much stimulation - the problem is that a wandering mind usually results in a lower mood.” If we can control our attention, this prevents intrusive thoughts. Hood suggests meditation. But he doesn’t encourage trying to suppress negative thoughts: “Allow them in. Treat them as foreign objects, then let them go.”

6. Make deeper connections

Put your smartphone away: studies show that just the sight of one detracts from how much you enjoy a social interaction. Try joining a sports club or a choir, turning a hobby into a chance to make new friends. 

Hood also points to a study in which individuals received envelopes containing $5 or $20, with instructions to spend it on themselves or someone else. Those who spent the money on a stranger ended up happier. Try a little act of unconditional kindness - and make it anonymous to increase the hit.

7. Get out of your head

Go for a walk in the great outdoors. It helps to deactivate two crucial brain regions: the amygdala, which is responsible for monitoring threats, and the default mode network, associated with mind-wandering and planning. Rediscovering childhood curiosity is another way to feel free. Gaze at the stars on a clear night; think about the immensity of space. “There are so many things to look at and ponder, who built it?” Hood says. “It can be nourishing to see oneself as part of the vast continuum of history.”

Surprising take aways from the Science of Happiness course include:

• Talking to strangers makes us happier, despite a majority of us shying away from such encounters.
• Social media is not bad for everyone, but it can be bad for those who focus on their reputation.
• Loneliness impacts on our health by impairing our immune systems.
• Optimism increases life expectancy.
• Giving gifts to others activates the reward centres in our brain - often providing more of a happiness boost than spending money on oneself.
• Sleep deprivation impacts on how well we are liked by others.
• Walking in nature deactivates part of the brain related to negative ruminations, which are associated with depression.
• Kindness and happiness are correlated.