2,650
Participants
Start Date
July 31, 2016
Primary Completion Date
August 31, 2018
Study Completion Date
July 31, 2019
Three Good Things
"In this tool participants reflect on good things that happened that day during evenings across 10 days. Participants are also able to voluntarily share their good things and read other participants' good things through the nightly anonymous log. By savoring good moments from earlier that day, participants are thought to shift from the natural focus on what went poorly due to negativity bias1 to an appreciation for what went well. This shift in focus is thought to reduce rumination and depression symptoms. In prior research, 3GTs was found to increase happiness and decrease depression in internet participants.2 In prior cohorts of 3GTs, we saw improvements in burnout, depression symptoms, work-life balance, and happiness. Participants also report benefiting from viewing nightly Three Good Things logs of others."
Gratitude
In this tool participants are offered the opportunity to cultivate gratitude toward others through a guided gratitude letter writing exercise.2 Through expressing gratitude, we learn more about our vital connections to others, often in surprising and meaningful ways. Previous research has found that gratitude interventions increase well-being in a number of ways, particularly in boosting positive affect.
Random Acts of Kindess
In this tool, participants report kind acts that they have committed, received, and/or witnessed, each day. By committing random acts of kindness participants experience a boost of positive emotions, and report lower negative affect. Recipients of acts of kindness benefit as well.
Awe
This tool provides participants the opportunity to recount in detail one of their own experiences of awe, and encourages them to be on the lookout for new ones (even minor examples) over a few days. When we experience awe, our sense of time expands, we are kinder to others, we experience higher life satisfaction, and we prefer experiences over material things.
1 Good Chat
This tool uses the latest research on cultivating relationships and increasing social connection. Feeling socially connected is linked to health and well-being outcomes, including longevity.6 The 1 Good Chat tool asks participants to reflect on good conversations and to note the prosocial behaviors that he/she and the other person engaged in
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Children's Hospital, Chapel Hill
Duke University Health System, Durham
Vanderbilt University, Nashville
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
University of Texas, Houston, Houston
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Palo Alto
Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford
Beth Israel Deconness Medical Center, Boston
Collaborators (1)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
NIH
Duke University
OTHER
Stanford University
OTHER