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| COURTESY: FASTCOMPANY.COM |
Seventy-five years in the making, costing over $20m Harvard study
concludes: "Happiness is love. Full stop."
In 1938 Harvard University began following 268 male undergraduate students and kicked off the longest-running longitudinal studies
of human development in history. The study's goal was to determine as best as possible what factors contribute most
strongly to human flourishing.
"At a time when many people around the world are
living into their tenth decade, the longest longitudinal study of human
development ever undertaken offers some welcome news for the new old age: our
lives continue to evolve in our later years, and often become more fulfilling
than before. Begun in 1938, the Grant
Study of Adult Development charted the physical and emotional health of over
200 men, starting with their undergraduate days. The now-classic 'Adaptation to Life' reported
on the men's lives up to age 55 and helped us understand adult maturation. Now George Vaillant follows the men into
their nineties, documenting for the first time what it is like to flourish far
beyond conventional retirement.
Reporting on all aspects of male life, including relationships, politics
and religion, coping strategies, and alcohol use (its abuse being by far the
greatest disruptor of health and happiness for the study's subjects), 'Triumphs
of Experience' shares a number of surprising findings. For example, the people who do well in old
age did not necessarily do so well in midlife, and vice versa. While the study confirms that recovery from a
lousy childhood is possible, memories of a happy childhood are a lifelong
source of strength. Marriages bring much
more contentment after age 70, and physical aging after 80 is determined less
by heredity than by habits formed prior to age 50. The credit for growing old with grace and
vitality, it seems, goes more to ourselves than to our stellar genetic
makeup."
In Triumphs of Experience, Vaillant raises a number of
factors more often than others, but the one he refers to most often is the
powerful correlation between the warmth of your relationships and your health
and happiness in your later years.
Vallant notes that the 58 men who scored highest on the
measurements of "warm relationships" (WR) earned an average of
$141,000 a year more during their peak salaries (between ages 55-60) than the
31 men who scored the lowest in WR. The
high WR scorers were also 3-times more likely to have professional success
worthy of inclusion in Who's Who.
One of the most intriguing discoveries of the Grant Study
was how significant men's relationships with their mothers are in determining
their well-being in life. For instance,
Business Insider writes: "Men who had 'warm' childhood relationships with
their mothers took home $87,000 more per year than men whose mothers were
uncaring.
On the other hand, warm childhood relations with fathers
correlated with lower rates of adult anxiety, greater enjoyment on vacations,
and increased 'life satisfaction' at age 75
In Vallant's own words, the #1 most important finding
from the Grant Study is this: "The seventy-five years and twenty million
dollars expended on the Grant Study points to a straightforward five-word
conclusion: Happiness is love. Full
stop."
