Can Positive Psychology Improve Psychological Well-Being and Economic Decision-Making? Experimental Evidence from Kenya

Abstract

We conduct a randomized experiment to evaluate the effect of a light-touch low-cost psychological intervention on psychological well-being and economic decision-making in a developingcountry setting. Residents of an informal settlement in Kenya were randomly assigned to participate in best-practice exercises designed to promote gratitude, self-affirmation, and aspirations. We show that although we were successful in manipulating the psychological construct (reported gratitude increased 0.3SD), there is no evidence that the intervention affected overall psychological well-being, beliefs, or aspirations. We also see no effects on real-incentive tasks measuring cognitive control or temporal discounting. Our results are important because lighttouch positive psychology interventions are being widely promoted in workplaces and schools worldwide as a low-cost solution to dramatically improve psychological well-being. We thank James Reisinger, Matthew Cohen and Lucy Rimmington for excellent research assistance, and James Vancel and the staff of the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics for implementation. We are grateful for comments to Leslie Martin, Sendhil Mullainathan, Tom Wilkening, and Jenny Williams. This research was supported by the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne and NIH R01AG039297 (Common Fund).

Context matters: Sociocultural considerations in the design and implementation of community-based positive psychology interventions in sub-Saharan Africa

“…These efforts emphasize the need for researchers and practitioners to explore, generate, and evaluate context-appropriate positive interventions for both clinical and non-clinical population groups, particularly for people living in rural, low-income settings in sub-Saharan Africa (Appiah et al, 2021b). Collaborative efforts from the sub-region, particularly Kenya (Baranov et al, 2020), Nigeria (Khan et al, 2020), and South Africa (Bonthuys et al, 2011;Teodorczuk et al, 2019;Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2012) are noteworthy. In a recent effort, researchers in Ghana developed a 10-session, once-weekly, two-hourly multicomponent PPI, the Inspired Life Program, aimed at promoting positive mental health, building resilience, and increasing vocational productivity among rural poor adults in Ghana (Appiah et al, 2021a).…”

The Impact of Psychological Resources on Body Mass Index in Obesity Surgery Candidates

“…It is also not surprising that psychological resources are associated with decreasing psychopathological symptoms given the literature on the stress-buffering effect of resilience, social and structural support, and personal capacities (25,26). Literature on the positive association between positive and negative traits is rare (38,39). Therefore, we could assume at this point that psychological resources alleviate depressive symptoms and thus have a decreasing potential for the risks of weight gain.…”

“…Garaigordobil ( 28 ) for an investigation of a link between self-esteem, happiness and psychopathology). It remains, however, noteworthy, that although positive psychology has had a massive increase in popularity during the recent years, not all interventions appear to yield appropriate effects ( 38 , 39 ). Also, contextual factors may not be dismissed when defining whether characteristics and behaviors are positive ( 49 ).…”

Replicable quality across every channel: the Busara research agenda on methods in the Global South

“…In addition, we at Busara have often worked with academic partners to design and implement novel methods to address the most challenging specific questions in the laboratory. These have included developing new measures of ethnic preferences (Blum et al, 2021), stress (Haushofer et al, 2015b), noise and cognitive function (Dean, 2021), mental health (Haushofer et al, 2020;Baranov et al, 2020), social preferences (Jang & Lynham, 2015), temperature (Almås et al, 2019), legacies of violence (Amanela et al, 2020), civic engagement (Wein et al, 2020) and much else.…”