Viewing archives for Prof. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

There’s something unique about eating together that’s good for us

BBC Future

Arguably the strongest evidence comes from the World Happiness Report – a yearly analysis of wellbeing based on a global survey from the opinion polling company Gallup. In 2024, the company was sponsored by the Japanese food manufacturer Ajinomoto to add a section on people’s eating habits, which included the following questions:

Thinking about the last 7 days …
(1) On how many days did you eat lunch with someone you know?
(2) On how many days did you eat dinner with someone you know?”

“My eyes lit up when I saw,” De Neve says, who co-authored a chapter on the importance of commensality in the latest World Happiness Report. “We’re looking at about 150,000 individuals around the world who responded to that question.”

De Neve’s team found that the more meals that people shared with others, the higher they scored on standard measures of emotional wellbeing, with quite astonishing consistency. “It was as predictive of someone’s life satisfaction as their employment status and your relative income,” he says – two factors that are known to be enormously important for wellbeing.

Sharing meals is associated with greater wellbeing

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Andrew Dugan, Micah Kaats and Alberto Prati

Abstract

Although social connections are important drivers of wellbeing, and sharing meals is a nearly universal practice, the relationship between sharing meals and wellbeing remains underexplored. In Study 1, using novel data from Gallup surveys in 142 countries and territories (2022–2023), we use the frequency of meal sharing as a global measure of social connections, and investigate its relationship with subjective wellbeing. We find a significant, positive relationship in almost all world regions. The number of shared meals explains as much variation in wellbeing as some key socioeconomic indicators, such as income or unemployment. In Study 2, we use data from the American Time Use Survey (2003–2023) to document changes in meal sharing in the United States over time. We find clear evidence that, with every passing year, Americans are dining alone more and more often, particularly the younger generations. Using Day Reconstruction Method data, we show that Americans who eat at least one meal with others report higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress, pain and sadness on that day. Finally, we point to a number of promising avenues for future research and discuss implications for policy.

The Companies Winning With AI Aren’t Replacing Workers

Forbes

In a difficult business environment, artificial intelligence can look like an obvious answer for executives seeking faster work, lower costs and new efficiencies. But as AI moves into everyday business use, the more important question is whether those gains will last.

New research led by Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford suggests companies may be making a strategic mistake if they treat AI mainly to cut headcount. The research argues that businesses focused too heavily on automation risk weakening the human capabilities they will need for growth, including creativity, judgment, institutional knowledge and leadership development.

“It’s a classic manifestation of status quo bias,” says De Neve. “It’s far easier for an executive to look at a spreadsheet and imagine using AI to streamline what people already do than it is to do the heavy strategic lifting of reimagining how technology can produce entirely new value. Treating AI as a headcount-slashing tool might yield quick, visible cost savings, but it is ultimately a path of organisational contraction that trades away a company’s long-term capacity to innovate.”

How to tell if you are living below the wellbeing poverty line

The Independent

“Wellbeing and happiness are ultimately – there is no way around it – in the eye of the beholder,” says De Neve, who is the co-founder of the World Wellbeing Movement; a charity which, for the past three years, has commissioned an annual UK Wellbeing Report which aims to assess the nation’s level of wellbeing by collating key UK data.

And, while there are many objective factors – such as physical and mental health, education, and income – that contribute to an individual’s wellbeing, the metric for assessing it couldn’t be simpler: asking people, on a scale of zero to 10, how satisfied they are with their life these days.

2026 UK Wellbeing Report

Maria Cotofan, Richard Layard, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Ben Wealthy

Abstract

After nearly a decade of steady-increases in national wellbeing, since 2020 the UK has experienced the largest drop in life satisfaction since records began. In 2025, life satisfaction across the country continues to stagnate in England, Wales and Scotland, but Northern Ireland experiences a stronger recovery. Across the country, 1 in 8 adults still live below the Happiness Poverty Line and only 1 in 4 adults live above the Flourishing Line – the same number as in our previous report. For the first time, we also show that these trends are also strongly related to whether people support the government, vote for the government, or participate in elections. When comparing UK regions over time, higher wellbeing relates to stronger support for the incumbent government, a higher vote share for the government, and higher election turnout. In a horse-race with household income and unemployment, wellbeing measures typically matter as much as – and in some cases more than – these key economic indicators.

What the world’s happiest countries can teach us about joyful living

New Scientist

Finland is starting to sound like a nirvana. A few months ago, it was named the happiest country in the World Happiness Report, topping the chart alongside its Nordic neighbours, which occupy five of the top six spots. And this was no fluke – Finland has now come first for nine years in a row.

Ostensibly, there are plenty of factors that ought to make people in Nordic countries less than content, not least the dingy weather and high taxes. Then again, there is a sense that these taxes really go somewhere, with residents reaping the rewards of investment into healthcare, education and transport. Plus, the low population density, massive forest coverage and access to lakes and coastlines all mean that even city dwellers are never too far from nature.

But how much confidence should we place in these global rankings? After all, happiness is a slippery concept, and all sorts of factors – not least how different cultures understand what it means to be happy – could conceivably skew the results. To delve into these questions, New Scientist spoke to economist and behavioural scientist Jan-Emmanuel De Neve at the University of Oxford, the editor of the World Happiness Report. He explained how his work attempts to measure true happiness, why he believes Finland deserves its top spot and what the rest of us can do to bring a bit more joy to our everyday lives.

CEO to staff: You’re not getting a raise. We’re spending on AI instead.

Business Insider

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, an economist and director of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre, told Business Insider he expects more companies to make similar trade-offs as they pursue AI, saying it is indicative of a “short-term mindset.”

“When leaders openly cut human compensation to fund AI, they are trying to project decisive, tech-forward management. However, the actual message traveling to the workforce is that they do not have a secure future in the organization,” De Neve said.

Meta Begins 8,000 Global Job Cuts in AI Efficiency Push

Bloomberg

“Automators like Meta risk no longer being an employer of choice as it’s being revealed that they will cut out the human when the opportunity presents itself,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, professor of economics and behavioral science at University of Oxford. “Doing so might well lead to short-term cost savings but risks longer-term growth potential by undermining employee wellbeing and engagement.”

How happy is the world in 2026? With Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

The We Society

What can we learn from the happiest countries in the world? In this episode of the We Society podcast, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, joins host Will Hutton to discuss the findings of the 2026 World Happiness Report and what we can learn for putting wellbeing at the heart of public policy.

S&P Global and Wellbeing Research Centre establish strategic collaboration to study AI-enabled work

The Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford and financial intelligence experts S&P Global have established a strategic collaboration to enable new research into how emerging technologies are changing the landscape of work.

The Wellbeing Research Centre is one of eight strategic collaborators announced today as part of the next phase of the three-year $10 million StepForward initiative between S&P Global and the S&P Global Foundation.

Launched in December 2025, StepForward aims to equip the next generation with the skills needed to succeed in an AI-enabled workforce by working through global and regional collaborators, complemented by skills-based volunteering that channels S&P Global employees’ expertise.

Strategic collaboration between S&P Global and the Wellbeing Research Centre will enable interdisciplinary study of multiple aspects of AI, data, and emerging technologies, as well as their knock-on effects on wellbeing at work and other indicators of business performance.

In particular, researchers will focus on how technological developments change and shape the job market, and identify the skills required for people to thrive in the AI era.

Funding will also support an academic prize for outstanding research in the domain of AI, wellbeing and the future of work. Further details of this student prize, including how to enter, will be announced by the Wellbeing Research Centre in due course.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Behavioural at Saïd Business School and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre, said: “AI has already fundamentally changed the world of work, but its impact on wellbeing remains poorly understood. This strategic collaboration enables us to take a closer look at how people respond to the opportunities – and challenges – that such emerging technologies may create.”

Girish Ganesan, Chief People Officer at S&P Global, said: “This collaboration reflects StepForward’s commitment to supporting organisations that drive innovation and impact. We’re proud to advance the Wellbeing Research Centre’s new interdisciplinary research, which will contribute to a deeper understanding of AI and the future of work.”

Find out more about the StepForward initiative at spglobal.com/en/who-we-are/corporate-responsibility/stepforward.