The Power of Happiness
Why people need people.
We built SendingLuv on a hunch: when your people show up for you, life gets better. Turns out decades of research agree. Here's what scientists have found about love, connection and happiness, with links to every study so you can read it yourself.
Love keeps us alive
Your people are good for your health. Like, measurably.
Researchers pooled 148 studies covering about 309,000 people. Those with stronger social relationships had 50% higher odds of survival over the study periods than those with weaker ones, an effect the authors call comparable to well-established risk factors for death.
The 85-year answer
Harvard has followed the same families since 1938.
It's one of the longest studies of adult life ever run. Its clearest finding: good relationships keep us happier and healthier. The people who were most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80.
Source: Harvard Gazette on the Harvard Study of Adult Development (2017)
Loneliness is everywhere
About half of US adults said they felt lonely.
In 2023 the US Surgeon General issued a public health advisory on loneliness and isolation. It warns that lacking connection raises the risk of dying early to a level comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and is linked to more heart disease, stroke and, in older adults, dementia.
Source: US Surgeon General, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (2023)
And it's global
This isn't just an American thing.
The World Health Organization's Commission on Social Connection estimates that loneliness is linked to around 871,000 deaths every year, about 100 every hour.
Happiness spreads
Joy is contagious. Scientists checked.
Tracking nearly 5,000 people over 20 years, researchers found happiness moves through networks of friends, family and neighbors, reaching up to three degrees of separation. Their conclusion: happiness is a collective thing, not just a personal one.
Source: Fowler & Christakis, BMJ (2008)
Say it out loud
Telling someone they matter lands harder than you think.
People wrote letters of thanks to someone who mattered to them, then guessed how the reader would feel. They underestimated how surprised and happy the readers would be, and overestimated how awkward it would feel. Which is exactly why a Montage hits so hard, and why people put off making one.
Caring makes everyone happier
Giving and getting care both make us happier.
The report found that acts of caring lift the happiness of both the people who give and the people who receive, and that people who often share meals with others are a lot happier. It also found people are kinder than we expect: far more lost wallets get returned than people predict.
Source: World Happiness Report 2025
So, what do we do about it?
Show up for each other, out loud. That's the whole idea behind SendingLuv: get your people together, have everyone say what they really think of someone, and send it as one big group hug. It's free, and we want to keep it that way.
We summarize each study in plain words and link to the original or to the institution's own write-up. Findings describe groups of people on average, not any one person, and this page isn't medical advice. Photos are real photographs from Pexels (credits); the people pictured are models.