02 Jan 2023
Call for contributions
A large-scale collaboration to identify the predictors of a happy, meaningful, and psychologically rich life
The LIVES Centre invites researchers across the social sciences to join a large-scale collaboration addressing a key question: What predicts the feeling of having lived a ‘good life’ so far? The challenge is to predict responses to three new items in the 2025 wave of the Swiss Household Panel, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of more than 15,000 adults. These items ask respondents to rate how happy, meaningful, and interesting (psychologically rich) their lives have been so far. Researchers are invited to submit a proposal using any of the thousands of variables available in the 1999 to 2025 waves of the Swiss Household Panel as predictors. Selected teams will preregister their predictions before the data is publicly released. The goal is to harness collective interdisciplinary expertise to advance research on the determinants of the ‘good life.’ The main output will be a collective, coauthored publication.
Why participate in this challenge?
• Advancing Research. Use high-quality longitudinal data to contribute to the interdisciplinary literature on well-being.
• High-Impact Publication. Co-author a multi-team paper for submission to a leading international journal.
• Financial Incentive. Each selected team will receive CHF 1,000.
How to participate?
Any researcher or team affiliated with a university may participate. Submit one proposal per team (600-800 words) by February 15, 2026, using this form. The form will request: (a) applicant information, (b) research questions and theoretical background, and (c) variables used and methodological approach.
What is the procedure?
Selection. Proposals will be selected by the scientific committee (see below) based on feasibility, theoretical relevance, methodological rigor, with a preference for projects that generate predictions for multiple outcomes and use a life-course approach. Applicants will be informed of the selection outcome by March 20, 2026.Preregistration. Selected teams will preregister hypotheses and analysis plans in spring 2026 (deadline: 31 May), before the public release of the Swiss Household Panel data in summer 2026. The LIVES Centre will collect, harmonize, and upload all preregistrations to a shared repository.
Analysis and output. Teams will analyze the data and submit a standardized report (2-3 pages) in fall 2026 (deadline: 30 Nov). The LIVES Centre will synthesize reports and conduct additional analyses (e.g., standardized comparisons, moderation by age). It will lead a collective, coauthored publication reporting the findings. The teams with the most insightful results will be invited to a workshop to develop a special issue on the topic.
Which research questions fit this challenge?
Proposals must be theory-driven rather than broad inductive searches across many predictors. We encourage investigations of heterogeneity (e.g., moderation by gender, age, income) but ask teams to avoid third- or higher-order interactions. If focusing on specific subpopulations, ensure the analytical sample size is sufficient for the planned analyses, as feasibility will be assessed. Analyses must ideally yield variance-based effect sizes (e.g., r, partial R2, ηp2 ).
We will favor proposals that…:
Try to predict all three ‘good life’ items (happiness, meaning, and psychological richness), although proposals focusing on two (or even one) items are welcome if theoretically justified.
Leverage the survey’s longitudinal design by modeling trajectories, cumulative exposure, event timing, or sequences of predictors. Note that the three ‘good life’ outcomes are observed only once in 2025, so changes in the outcomes themselves cannot be modeled.
Examples of research questions: How do income trajectories over the life course predict perceptions of having lived a happy, meaningful, or psychologically rich life? How does change in features of social networks predict perceptions of having lived a happy, meaningful, or psychologically rich life? How do diverse life events over the life course predict perceptions of having lived a happy, meaningful, or psychologically rich life?
What do we mean by ‘good life’?
Decades of research suggest that the ‘good life’ can be conceptualized in three complementary ways:
a happy life, that is, enjoyable and comfortable (Diener, 1984; Kahneman, 1999; Layard, 2010),
a meaningful life, that is, fulfilling and purposeful (Frankl, 1985; Ryff, 1989; Steger, 2009), and
a psychologically rich life, that is, intense and eventful (Besser & Oishi, 2020; Oishi et al., 2020).
These components are linked to different theoretical traditions, and their predictors have mostly been studied in isolation. This project will integrate these traditions and build a comprehensive account of their predictors.
What is the Swiss Household Panel and what does it measure?
The Swiss Household Panel is carried out by the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS). It is Switzerland’s nationally representative longitudinal study and a leading panel study worldwide. Since 1999, it has followed individuals and households annually, collecting thousands of variables and detailed retrospective life calendars. These variables cover domains such as finances, employment, education, health, family, social networks, values, and political attitudes, any of which can serve as predictors in this project.
→ Link to the 2025 questionnaires: [individual questionnaires] [household questionnaires]
→ Link to a spreadsheet describing the items for Waves 2023-2019, along with the sample sizes: here
→ Link to a searchable documentation portal: here (see “Search tools” “/Search variables” “/By domain”)
How is the “good life” measured in the Swiss Household Panel?
The LIVES Centre included a new module in the 2025 wave (N > 15,000 adults). Respondents to this wave provided retrospective assessments of three items on a 0 (“not at all”) to 10 (“a great deal”) scale, pretested in a pilot study:
“A happy life is enjoyable and comfortable. To what extent has your life, so far, been a happy life?”
“A meaningful life is fulfilling and purposeful. To what extent has your life, so far, been a meaningful life?”
“An interesting life is intense and eventful. To what extent has your life, so far, been full of interesting experiences?”
Timeline
Call for proposal
• Summer 2025: The three-item ’good life’ module is implemented in the 2025 wave of the Swiss Household Panel.
• February 15, 2026: Deadline for proposal submissions.
Selection and notification
• Feb 2026: The scientific committee selects projects based on the criteria described above.
• March 20 2026: Applicants are notified of selection decisions.
Preregistration
• April-May 2026: Selected teams preregister their hypotheses and analysis plans before the data are released.
• May 31, 2026: Deadline for submitting preregistrations to the LIVES Centre.
Analysis and standardized report
• July 15, 2026: Release of the 2025 Swiss Household Panel wave, including the retrospective “good life” module.
• Summer 2026: Selected teams analyze the data in line with their preregistrations.
• November, 30, 2026: Teams submit a 2- to 3-page research report summarizing theory, analyses, and conclusions.
• Upon receipt of report: Teams receive payment (CHF 1,000).
Synthesis and publication
• Fall 2026 to Early 2027: The LIVES Centre synthesizes findings and begins drafting the collaborative manuscript.
• Spring 2027: The collaborative manuscript is circulated and submitted.
• Spring 2027: A workshop convenes teams with the most insightful results to develop a special issue on the topic.
Scientific committee
Projects will be selected by an interdisciplinary LIVES committee composed of Nicolas Sommet (coordinator, University of Lausanne), Ursina Kuhn (FORS), Rafael Lalive (University of Lausanne), Daniel Oesch (University of Lausanne), Clémentine Rossier (University of Geneva).
Scientific committee
Information session If you would like to schedule a video session with the coordinator to discuss the project, enter your email address below using this form. We will contact you within a few weeks.
Contact
Nicolas Sommet, Head of Research
LIVES Centre, Géopolis #5785, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Email: Nicolas.Sommet@unil.ch