Happiness Is Love | The Men Of The Harvard Grant Study

A Study was done on 268 Harvard grads over a 75 year period to assess possible predictors of healthy aging.  The main result above all else that led to the most fulfillment and satisfaction in life was: warmth of relationships.  “Happiness is love. Full Stop.”

“The 75 years and 20 million dollars expended on the Grant study points…to a straight forward 5 word conclusion: Happiness is love. Full stop”

-George Vaillant

Here are the main findings:

• Alcoholism is a disorder of great destructive power.
  • Alcoholism was the main cause of divorce between the Grant Study men and their wives.
  • Strongly correlates with neurosis and depression, which tended to follow alcohol abuse, rather than precede it.
  • Together with associated cigarette smoking, was the single greatest contributor to their early morbidity and death.
• Financial success depends on warmth of relationships and, above a certain level, not on intelligence.
  • Those who scored highest on measurements of “warm relationships” earned an average of $141,000 a year more at their peak salaries (usually between ages 55 and 60).
  • No significant difference in maximum income earned by men with IQs in the 110–115 range and men with IQs higher than 150.
• Political mindedness correlates with intimacy: Aging liberals have more sex.
  • The most-conservative men ceased sexual relations at an average age of 68.
  • The most-liberal men had active sex lives into their 80s.
• The warmth of childhood relationship with mothers matters long into adulthood:
  • Men who had “warm” childhood relationships with their mothers earned an average of $87,000 more a year than men whose mothers were uncaring.
  • Men who had poor childhood relationships with their mothers were much more likely to develop dementia when old.
  • Late in their professional lives, the men’s boyhood relationships with their mothers—but not with their fathers—were associated with effectiveness at work.
  • The warmth of childhood relationships with mothers had no significant bearing on “life satisfaction” at 75.
• The warmth of childhood relationship with fathers correlated with:
  • Lower rates of adult anxiety.
  • Greater enjoyment of vacations.
  • Increased “life satisfaction” at age 75.

Harvard Grant Study: Long Term Study On Happiness