What does it take to be happy? Three simple and surprising questions may hold the answer, research found. While most of us seek more money and greater achievement as paths to happiness, these questions are all about connection. They’re more strongly associated with self-measured life satisfaction than either money or success. That’s according to the 2025 World Happiness Report published by Oxford University and based on a study of people in 147 countries. The questions are:

How often do you eat meals with other people, rather than alone?

How often do you do things for other people, such as making donations, volunteering, or helping strangers?

This may all sound like wishful thinking, but the research shows that, while economic security and career satisfaction contribute to happiness, these prosocial factors make a much bigger difference. If you want to be happy,

This is a rare instance where the report’s happiness advice coincides with frequently offered success advice to never have lunch alone. Lunching at your desk can mean missing out on valuable opportunities for networking or relationship building. It turns out it can also mean missing the chance to be happier by building a stronger social connection. Research suggests that we often expect spending time alone will make us happier than being with others, especially people we don’t know well. But then when we do spend time with others, it makes us happier than we expected.

The research looked at whether subjects ate with others or alone for lunch and dinner (it didn’t consider breakfast).

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