Doing daily activities together with other people makes us happy
Humans are social animals, and psychological studies repeatedly show that people are, on average, happier when they engage in a shared activity with another person compared to doing it alone. However, most of these studies focused on only one or a few activities. Thus, it is unclear whether all daily activities are better when conducted with another person or whether there might be specific activities that people enjoy more when being alone than when being with another person.
A new study on daily activities and happiness
A new study, “Everything Is Better Together: Analyzing the Relationship Between Socializing and Happiness in the American Time Use Survey,” just published in the scientific journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, focused on closing this gap in the psychological literature on happiness (Folk and Dunn, 2025). The study, authored by scientists Dunigan Folk and Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, was based on a large dataset called the American Time Use Survey. The survey is conducted by the United States Census Bureau over several years and includes telephone interview data on how people spend their days. In the study, data from the years 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021 were analysed, as in these years, volunteers who participated in the survey were asked to rate their happiness during their daily activities on a scale from zero to six. Moreover, the scientists included data about the activity type and whether it was conducted alone or with another person in their analysis. Overall, the researchers included more than 80 different activity types based on more than 100,000 different activity episodes from more than 41,000 volunteers. This is a large dataset with trustworthy statistical findings. Examples for activities included in the study were “eating and drinking,” “grocery shopping,” “work,” and “caring for animals and pets,” among many others.
Everything is better together
The study findings were quite striking: The scientists found that people rated every single common daily activity more enjoyable with another person than alone. Over the four years, a combined number of 297 activity types were included (in some years, some activities did not occur, making the number slightly smaller than expected). Out of those 297 activities, 296 showed an increase in happiness when doing them with another person. The only activity for which people reported a decrease in happiness when doing it with another person was “food and kitchen cleanup” in the 2021 dataset. However, this activity also showed an increase in happiness when done together with another person in the other three included years. Thus, people strongly and consistently preferred doing daily activities with another person compared to doing them alone. The strongest increase in happiness across all four years was found for eating and drinking together compared to eating and drinking alone. Other activities that showed strong and consistent increases in happiness when done together with another person were travel, walking, and running.
Takeaway: When in doubt, socialise!
The study has a clear message: Doing things with other people we like is an excellent way to boost our own happiness, even if it is something mundane like cleaning the house or shopping for gas. The next time you are in doubt, whether to invite a friend for an activity: Do it! It will make you happier.
