Lugano
Happiness Forum

Bjørn Grinde received his education in natural sciences, psychology, and anthropology from the University of Oslo. He has been a chief scientist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and served as a scientist and professor at various universities. An important part of his research has been to understand the process of evolution, particularly how it formed the human brain.

The Biology of Happiness

I use a biological/evolutionary framework to explain what happiness is about. 
Briefly, the primary purpose of nervous systems is to direct an animal toward behavior conducive to survival and procreation, and as a rule of thumb, this implies either approach or avoidance.

Evolution added a system of feelings in our distant ancestors perhaps 300 million years ago. Rewards, in the form of positive feelings, were meant to motivate the animals toward behavior useful for the genes (approach), while punishment, in the form of negative feelings, should help the animal avoid harmful events (avoidance). The human brain delivers many types of feelings, anything from love and sweet taste to loneliness and physical pain, but the reward and punishment part of these feelings is delivered by distinct and shared neuronal circuits. Happiness can be construed as the net output of these circuits. 
I shall discuss the relevance of this model for the pursuit of happiness.

John F. Helliwell is a Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is also Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of British Columbia. He was previously a member of the National Statistics Council 2001-2015, visiting special advisor at the Bank of Canada in 2003-04, visiting research fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 2003, of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 2001, and Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard in 1991-94.

World Happiness Report 2024: Happiness and Age

World Happiness Report 2024 shows large international differences in the relative happiness of the young and old. In North America the happiness rankings for those under 30 are far lower than for those 60+. 
On the other hand, there several countries, often in Central and Eastern Europe, where ranks for the young are far higher than for those over 60. Most of these differences are of recent origin and invite a deeper look. There are now enough years of Gallup World Poll data to separate age and generation. Both matters. Globally, life evaluations are higher by one-quarter point for those born before 1965 than for those born after 1980, subject to large variations from country to country, and with happiness dropping with age for those born after 1980 and rising with age for those born before 1965.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD is a professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Social Connection & Health Lab at Brigham Young University. She is also the founding scientific chair and board member for the U.S. Foundation for Social Connection and the Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection. Her research focuses on the individual and population health effects, biological mechanisms, and effective strategies to mitigate risk and promote protection associated with social connection. 
She has given a TED Talk and given expert advice and testimony internationally to many organizations including being the lead scientific editor for a US Surgeon General’s Advisory and Framework for a National Strategy. 

Social Connection: A key to happiness may also be vital to society

One of the biggest predictors of happiness is also linked to better overall well-being, health, safety, and prosperity. Social connection is widely considered a fundamental human need essential to individual, community, and society functioning. Yet far too many lack connection, and there are growing concerns of the ramifications. Drawing upon societal trends and interdisciplinary scientific evidence, social connection may be the key to understanding and addressing pressing societal issues and to thriving.

Laura Marciano is a Research Associate at the Harvard Chan T.H. School of Public Health (Boston, MA, USA), Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness and IBSA Foundation advisory board. She is in charge of research projects on digital media and well-being, including the HappyB projects with data collected in Swiss and U.S. adolescents. Together with IBSA Foundation (Silvia Misiti) and USI (Prof. Peter J. Schulz), she is leading the Happiness2.0 science communication project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), to offer science-based communication activities to Ticino adolescents aged between 14 and 18, parents and stakeholders.

Luigi Maria Di Corato graduated with honors in art history from the University of Siena. He continued his education with a master’s degree in business administration at the MIP Politecnico di Milano and a postgraduate course in Management and Economics of Culture at the SDA Bocconi School of Management. He gained field experience in the management of major cultural projects, worked in international organizations, and directed important institutions characterized by public-private collaboration, such as Forte di Bard in Valle d’Aosta (from 2005 to 2006), Museo e Tesoro del Duomo di Monza (from 2007 to 2009), Fondazione Musei Senesi (from 2009 to 2014) and Fondazione Brescia Musei (from 2014 to 2018).
From 2003 to 2018, he was university lecturer in cultural management at the Faculty of Economics of the Catholic University in Milan; from 2017 to 2018, he was Chairman of the Strategic Plan Committee of ICOM, the international association of museums based in Paris. Since 2018 he has been Director of Cultural DIvision of the City of Lugano.

Prof. Alimonti received his MD degree from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and his medical and training in oncology from the National Cancer Institute of Rome. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology first at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and then at Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2010 he joined the IOR, as head of the Molecular Oncology Group and in January 2024 he was appointed the new IOR Director. During his career, he has obtained important awards and competitive grants (EMBO Young Investigator, Swiss Bridge Award, ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants, J. Steiner Cancer Research Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation Award, Award from the Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research). He is the author of many clinical and basic research publications in major scientific journals (e.g. Science, Nature, Cell, Nat. Gen etc).

Mark K. Setton, D.Phil., is the CEO of Pursuit-of-Happiness.org. He has published numerous works on Asian philosophy and wellbeing. Obtaining an M.A. at Sungkyunkwan University, and his doctorate at Oxford University, he has taught at SUNY, UC Berkeley, and Oxford. Mark and his team design educational programs on the science of wellbeing for schools, universities, and corporations. He is especially interested in the resonance between modern science and ancient wisdom.