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Researchers, led by UC San Francisco, tested the effectiveness of a weeklong, web-based well-being intervention, known as the Big Joy Project. This consisted of daily micro-acts, which included asking someone to share a fun, inspiring, or proud moment, making a gratitude list, and performing a kind act to brighten someone's day.

Approximately 17, 600 people from around the world participated: most were from the United States, Canada and Great Britain (71%), female (84%), white (74%), with at least some college education (94%).

The work is published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

After the seven-day intervention, participants reported higher levels of well-being and positive emotions, and a stronger belief that one's own behavior can promote happiness. They also reported decreased stress, and improved health and sleep quality. Younger, Black and Hispanic, and socially disadvantaged participants benefited the most.

Improvements in well-being are associated with a lower risk of future mental illness and better physical health. "People with higher well-being are less likely to develop chronic conditions, like cardiovascular diseases, and have reduced mortality in both healthy and unhealthy populations, " said senior author Elissa Epel, Ph.D.

Web-based well-being interventions that last several weeks and take three to four hours a week to complete have shown favorable results. But this is the first time that a short intervention has shown such strong benefits, and it could work for more people.

"Many people lack the time, motivation, and resources to commit to these lengthier programs, and they may be more likely to drop out, " said first author Darwin Guevarra, Ph.D., who is also affiliated with Miami University.

"We were excited to get positive results in a program that required just a few minutes each day for a week."

More information: Darwin A Guevarra et al, Scaling a Brief Digital Well-Being Intervention (the Big Joy Project) and Sociodemographic Moderators: Single-Group Pre-Post Study, Journal of Medical Internet Research (2025). DOI: 10.2196/72053  Journal information: Journal of Medical Internet Research