6 Reasons to Choose IR224: Happiness and Policy This Summer School

How many times have you thought: “I’ll be happy, but only once I…”? Perhaps you've told yourself that you'll be satisfied only once you've received your hard-earned job promotion, achieved the grades you want, or purchased the latest phone model.

And how many times have you realised that even after getting what you thought would make you happy, this happiness is at best short-lived?

In IR224 last year, I discovered that this pattern isn’t a personal failing. In fact, it is a predictable feature of human behaviour that governments and researchers, including at LSE, are now designing policy around! Intrigued? Here are 6 more reasons why you should take IR224: Happiness and Policy.

1. It starts with a question we have all asked ourselves…

What actually makes us happy? This isn’t a broad, self-help question. It can be studied scientifically, empirically, and even applied to the policies that shape our lives. You will be captivated from the very first lecture, because the subject matter, fundamentally, is all of us!

2. You’ll discover we’re surprisingly bad at making predictions about our happiness

In IR224, I learned about affective forecasting: our ability (or maybe, lack thereof) to predict how future events will make us feel. My favourite insights included that we tend to overestimate the joy of the highs, and underestimate how quickly we adapt to changes. As humans, we also constantly compare ourselves. One of the most memorable in-class debates during the course was on this very question: is making social comparisons good for us, as a society? Thinking about such relevant questions, and trying to understand them, is something that felt genuinely liberating – both for me and my classmates.

3. The teaching is world-class

Dr Kate Laffan and Dr Christian Krekel brought our lectures to life with a combination of their cutting-edge research and contagious enthusiasm for the science of wellbeing. In addition to daily seminars with our amazing instructor and PhD student Katelyn Taylor, I experienced some of the liveliest and most enriching debates I have had at university. Some of the frameworks you will study – such as the WELLBY metric, designed to measure how much wellbeing a policy generates for people – were developed by the very researchers teaching you. Learning from the people actively shaping the field felt surreal!

4. Experiences beyond the classroom

Ever heard of a sound bath? I hadn’t, until my time at LSE Summer School last year. After a class covering the wellbeing benefits of practices like meditation, a group of us went directly to the Zen Den: a sound bath experience organised by the LSE team. Set inside a school bus on campus, we were immersed in the resonance of a gong to induce 20 minutes of relaxation. Not only did I forget where I was in the Zen Den… When the session ended, I felt as though I’d had a full night’s sleep! From the two summers I have spent at LSE, I believe experiential learning is one of LSE Summer School’s greatest strengths. Be it through lectures by the leaders in your academic field, to activities such as the Zen Den, to visiting London and Cambridge – there truly is something to match every student’s interests.

5. The friendships

LSE Summer School draws students from every part of the world: last year, over 118 nationalities were represented! This is what made the experience and discussions so enriching during my time: the diversity of backgrounds, cultures and perspectives on what a good life looks like was eye-opening for me. Two of my closest friends today are students I met in IR224, and though we are scattered across three continents, we still find the time to call and catch up online. If there is one thing that is guaranteed to outlast your summer at LSE, it will be the relationships you form, and the friends you make.

6. The learning doesn’t stop when the summer does!

If you end up as fascinated by the science of wellbeing as I did, your learning doesn’t have to stop at LSE Summer School. Students in IR224 were encouraged to attend the weekly ‘Wellbeing Seminars’ held in-person and online at LSE throughout the academic year, facilitated by Dr Christian Krekel. By attending, you’ll get to stay up-to-date on the latest wellbeing research and lean on your knowledge from IR224 to understand it!

Final thoughts

Having attended LSE Summer School for two years, I can say with certainty that it is an experience that will stretch you: intellectually, personally, and sometimes in ways you don’t expect (try the sound bath)! If you’re looking for a course that changes how you think about your own life and gives you the tools to improve society’s – IR224: Happiness and Policy is the one for you.