Simple micro‑actions can boost psychological well‑being, new research suggests

A study recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that participating in a brief, low-effort online program designed to promote joy led to meaningful improvements in emotional well-being, stress levels, and self-reported health. The program, known as the Big Joy Project, asked participants to complete small positive actions each day for just one week. Notably, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds—including those experiencing financial strain, lower education levels, and racial or ethnic minority status—tended to benefit the most.

The researchers designed the study in response to a growing need for accessible mental health interventions that can reach people across a range of social and economic circumstances. Many well-being programs have shown promise in past studies, but often require time, resources, and commitment that limit their scalability. Lengthier interventions may yield stronger effects, but participation rates can suffer due to the burden they place on users. The Big Joy Project was created to address these issues by offering a quick, free, web-based alternative that would be easy for people to complete during their daily routines.

“We were inspired by the Mission: Joy documentary, which shares the friendship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and explores how people can find joy even in the face of hardship,” said study author Darwin Guevarra, an assistant professor of psychology at Miami University.

“That message felt especially important during the pandemic. Together with the team at Greater Good in Action, we created the Big Joy Project to bring science-based micro-acts of joy to everyone. We wanted to see if doing small things, like expressing gratitude or helping someone, could boost emotional well-being, even when done just once a day for a week. For me personally, I’m especially interested in low-effort, less time-intensive strategies that still have meaningful psychological effects because those are the kinds of tools people are more likely to use in daily life.”

The resulting program included a series of seven activities, such as expressing gratitude, performing acts of kindness, or reflecting on awe-inspiring experiences. Each activity took approximately 5 to 10 minutes and was delivered via email over the course of a week.

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Participants were recruited through a variety of open-access channels, including social media, newsletters, screenings of the film, and word of mouth. Anyone over 18 years old was eligible to participate, and there were no exclusion criteria. In total, 48,789 people signed up, and 17,598 completed both the beginning and end-of-week surveys used in the final analysis. The sample was geographically diverse, representing 169 countries, although most participants were from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Demographically, the sample was predominantly female, White, and highly educated.

Before and after the week-long intervention, participants responded to a short battery of questions measuring several outcomes: emotional well-being, positive emotions, perceived agency over one’s happiness, stress, self-rated physical health, and sleep quality. On average, participants completed five of the seven activities.

The analysis revealed consistent improvements across all outcome measures. Emotional well-being rose by nearly a full point on a 0–10 scale, positive emotions increased, and participants reported feeling more capable of influencing their happiness. Perceived stress declined significantly, while both sleep quality and self-rated health showed smaller but still significant improvements.

Importantly, the degree of benefit was related to how many activities people completed. Those who did more daily acts of joy saw greater improvements. Even participants who only completed a few activities experienced gains, and there was a clear trend showing a dose-response relationship: more engagement led to better outcomes. Surprisingly, even individuals who did not complete any activities but filled out both surveys showed small improvements, possibly due to self-reflection or placebo effects.

“You don’t need a total life overhaul to feel better,” Guevarra told PsyPost. “Even small, daily actions that take just a few minutes, like reflecting on a meaningful moment or showing appreciation, can add up to meaningful improvements in your emotional well-being. And anyone can try them, regardless of background or life situation.”

The researchers also examined whether the benefits varied depending on participant characteristics. They found that people from disadvantaged groups—those with lower income, education, or subjective social status—tended to benefit more from the program than their more privileged counterparts. For example, individuals with only a high school education showed greater improvements in well-being and health measures than those with graduate degrees.

Similarly, participants who reported financial strain or lower perceived social status experienced larger gains. Racial and ethnic minority participants, especially Black and Hispanic individuals, also tended to benefit more than White participants across several measures.

Age also played a role. Younger participants experienced greater increases in emotional well-being and greater reductions in stress compared to older individuals. The researchers noted that older adults had higher baseline well-being scores, which may have left less room for improvement.

Interestingly, gender did not appear to influence the effectiveness of the intervention. Men, women, and nonbinary participants all experienced similar improvements, a finding consistent with prior research suggesting that the benefits of well-being interventions are not strongly influenced by gender.

“We were pleasantly surprised by how consistent the benefits were across different types of people,” Guevarra said. “No matter someone’s age, gender, or income, most participants felt better after just one week of doing these joy practices. What really stood out was that people who were more socially disadvantaged (e.g., those reporting lower subjective social status or more financial strain) actually benefitted more. We didn’t expect that.”

Although the study provides encouraging evidence that short, accessible interventions can promote well-being, the authors caution that more research is needed to confirm these effects. The study lacked a randomized control group, meaning that the observed improvements could have been influenced by factors unrelated to the intervention, such as seasonal changes or participants’ expectations. Still, the short time span—just one week—makes it unlikely that external factors alone explain the size of the gains observed.

Another limitation is that the sample was self-selected and skewed toward individuals who were already interested in well-being and had internet access. This may limit how generalizable the results are to broader populations. The researchers also relied on brief, self-reported measures, some of which used only a single item to assess key outcomes like stress or sleep. While these items have been validated in other studies, more comprehensive assessments would help strengthen future evaluations.

Additionally, the study did not include a follow-up period, so it remains unclear how long the effects last. Many well-being programs show initial improvements that fade over time unless participants continue to practice the skills they learn. The Big Joy Project was designed to be brief, but researchers acknowledge the need to test whether it can create durable change, either on its own or as a first step toward longer-term habit formation.

Despite these limitations, the findings point to a promising approach for scaling mental health support. By making activities short, flexible, and engaging, the Big Joy Project lowered many of the barriers that prevent people from participating in traditional interventions. The fact that it reached a diverse, global audience and had stronger effects among more vulnerable groups adds to its potential public health impact.

The researchers plan to follow up with a randomized controlled trial to further test the Big Joy Project’s effectiveness.

“We want to understand how to make well-being practices more accessible, sustainable, and tailored to people’s needs,” Guevarra explained. “One next step is doing a large randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the Big Joy Project more rigorously and explore not just emotional well-being, but potential physical health benefits too. We’re also interested in tracking long-term outcomes to see whether short interventions can lead to lasting changes. Another goal is to personalize the experience so people can discover which strategies work best for them, based on their goals or life context.”

“In the long run, we hope to implement these low-effort, science-backed practices in real-world settings like schools, workplaces, and health care systems, places where a small boost in well-being could make a big difference.

“This study is a great example of how science and storytelling can come together,” Guevarra added. “The Mission: Joy film sparked curiosity and emotional connection, and the Big Joy Project gave people a practical way to take action. Our hope is that anyone who watches the film or tries the project walks away feeling a little more empowered to build joy in their own life and and maybe spread a bit of it to others too.”

The study, “Scaling a Brief Digital Well-Being Intervention (the Big Joy Project) and Sociodemographic Moderators Single-Group Pre-Post Study,” was authored by Darwin A. Guevarra, Yoobin Park, Xuhai Xu, Jin Liou, Jolene Smith, Peggy Callahan, Emiliana Simon-Thomas, and Elissa S. Epel.