Sometimes you're scared of the data. Sometimes it's scared of you. Speaking about the importance of tackling lead exposure at an event organised by Pure Earth

Is giving just 1% of your income to effective charities the minimum for being a decent person? Michael Plant for Institute of Art and Ideas: iai.tv/articles/aim-a…

Gardeners would call these 'weeds', but I say this accidental rewilding project just by my home in Bristol is rather wonderful

People substantially underestimate the impact of asking good questions to researchers. You might think it has no impact, but I've now started multiple projects because people asked me good questions I hadn't thought of and didn't have answers to.

When I was in the British Army Reserve, I couldn't understand why we spent so much time marching. The shuffling soldiers at Trump parade provide an answer: if your drill is bad, you look seriously unscary.

People often complain that happiness surveys are 'subjective'. But, happiness is a feeling - we're measuring something subjective. Yet, subjective =/= arbitrary. People don't make up their scores at random. They base them on how good/bad they feel.

I see the coverage of my 2022 paper is doing the rounds again 🤓 For the intrigued, that Daily Mail story was loosely based on my article in Journal of Controversial Ideas: journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/2/2/206

Resharing our five lessons from five years of improving global wellbeing using happiness science, on today, our sixth birthday: happierlivesinstitute.org/report/five-le…

HLI is hiring a Development Manager! Come work for the best organisation in the world and raise funds for the most impactful organisations in the world! Info: happierlivesinstitute.org/2025/07/15/dev… Apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI… Deadline is 27th July, i.e. nex Friday

Sometimes I dress up. Sometimes I go to conferences. Today, I'm doing both for International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies to promote the Happiness Factory, a giving gave where people get real money - $10-$500 - and have to choose which charity donate to.

Where do people give money to if you give them info on charity impact *and* wear top hats? We ran an experiment, 'The Happiness Factory', to find out... happierlivesinstitute.org/2025/08/27/ref…

🚨New research🚨 I've just had a co-authored paper on moral uncertainty come out in Ergo. We develop a new 'moral marketplace' theory that can justify donation splitting - and has some other major theoretical advantages! journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/i…

NEW: Imagine you’re a policymaker that wants to put #wellbeing first, but you know there are different, seemingly competing accounts of wellbeing. How do you possibly choose? Read more from Michael Plant and colleagues in the journal Ergo👇 doi.org/10.3998/ergo.7…

The first ever course for charities & NGOs providing evidence-based measurement tools using wellbeing science is now available for FREE on our website. ✍️Enrol today: happierlivesinstitute.org/research/measu…

Academics: you work on 'happiness'? You can't measure that. Also academics: oh, did you see we went up the rankings? Out today: theguardian.com/education/ng-i…

🚨New podcast 🚨 Spencer Greenberg 🔍 and I go wonderfully deep on the big issues about doing good and improving wellbeing. Link: podcast.clearerthinking.org/episode/280/mi… Summary:

🎧 Listen back to Michael Plant on Spencer Greenberg's 'Clearer Thinking' Podcast where they discuss topics in moral philosophy: podcast.clearerthinking.org/episode/280/mi…

On this #WorldMentalHealthDay, read our blog post about the Global Mental Health Report released by Bloom, with research by us: bit.ly/4o3r14F Let’s make #MentalHealth a much higher global priority. #MentalHealthAwareness #Happiness #HappierLivesInstitute