Play Games
for Science.
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Supporting neuroscience research & education
The Happiness Project is designed for everyone.
Its games and surveys are based on the latest insights from brain research. Using statistical analysis on the gameplay data you contribute, we will be able to discover what mechanisms underlie human happiness, and how happiness changes over time. Together, we can advance our knowledge of the brain and mental health.
The Games
How fast should I go?
In everyday situations, we are constantly bombarded by different tasks that demand our limited energy and attention. Our brains are central to the process of determining how much effort to expend in order to achieve the goals that matter to us. Our mood may play a role in how this mental process occurs.
See how many fish you can catch in a limited window of time. The faster you tap, the more fish you get!
Am I a risk taker?
For big and small decisions in life, we often face this dilemma: Do I choose an option that is risky but can be highly rewarding, or one that is safe but less rewarding? Risk preference isn’t just a stable trait that differs between different people: it might also be something that changes, related to how happy we feel in the moment.
See how good you are at making decisions by winning as many points as you can in a spinner game.
How do I decide?
We often make choices involving risk. Sometimes bigger gains are made by taking a riskier approach, but sometimes playing it safe yields more long-term rewards. Our momentary happiness likely plays a role in how we evaluate these risky decisions.
In this game, you play a pirate digging for treasure! You decide how far you want to dig to get your treasure. The deeper you go, the bigger the spoils, but the higher the risk of coming up empty handed!
How fast do I learn?
Ever notice that when you’re in a good mood, even your dullest experiences feel pleasant, but in a bad mood, it feels as though nothing seems to be? Our level of happiness can have a big effect on how we process and learn new information.
In this game, hunt for precious gems by choosing between different animal icons. Some animals hide gems more often than others, so it’s up to you to figure out your optimal animal-picking strategy!
What’s Happiness Research About?
Our research goal is to build computational models that explain how humans make decisions, to describe the factors that determine states like happiness, and study the relationship between those states and behavior.
By playing the games and completing the surveys on our app, you will help us investigate how different brain mechanisms influence our happiness. This will allow us to better understand how brain processes are linked to mental health problems and may help to find new treatments.
Find more about our research on our lab website:
What role do I play?
This is a ‘citizen science’ project. We are bringing classic neuroscience experiments out of the lab, and into your smartphone.
Every minute of gameplay that you contribute to the The Happiness Project is data that will be used in real academic research. We’ll publish the results of our research in scientific journals. These papers, once published, will be available to read online.
To follow the developments of the papers we publish with the help of your data and to stay up-to-date on current happiness research, sign up for our newsletter!
Is my information safe?
Your privacy is very important to us. Your data is completely anonymized, which means we do not know who you are and we cannot find out. The app won’t ask for your name, phone number, or any other personally-identifying information.
We will only use your data for academic research purposes here at University College London. We will not use your data for any commercial purposes. We are only collecting the data you are willing to share with us.
Taking part is completely voluntary. You can change your privacy preferences or withdraw completely from the experiment in the Settings menu at any time and without giving a reason.
For all details on privacy, please see our Terms & Conditions.
Our Sponsors
The Happiness Project was developed by the Rutledge Lab at University College London based at the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research and the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging. Development was supported y the UK Medical Research Council and the Max Planck Society.
Get in touch.
We’d love to hear from you!
Tell us what you like about the app or things you think we could improve.