The key to happiness in life is social fitness

What makes a happy life? This is one of the most important questions anyone can ask. In 1938, researchers at Harvard University tried to answer it. They collected the health records of more than 700 people across the world and asked them detailed questions every two years about their life. They did this for 85 years. What they discovered is striking.

It is not money or career success, exercise or a good diet that gives someone sustained happiness. It is the social relationships they make. The friendships they cultivate and the communities that nourish them give them a longer and happier existence than those who neglect their own social lives. The key to happiness is social fitness.

This makes sense. More than 2,000 years ago