01
Happiness & Life Satisfaction
Every predictor of subjective wellbeing or life satisfaction. Bar width = rough effect magnitude. Green protects; terracotta reduces. Hover any row for study, N, citation.
WHAT PREDICTS HAPPINESS — sorted by effect magnitude
Big Five personality composite
Unemployment
Warm close relationships
Chronic pain / illness
Disability (acquired)
Income (log-linear for happy 80%)
Lottery win (Lindqvist 2020)
Exercise (regular, moderate)
Sense of purpose / meaning
Flow frequency (Csikszentmihalyi)
Widowhood (slow adaptation)
Chronic loneliness
Sleep quality (7–9 hrs)
Long commutes
Divorce (partial adaptation)
Materialism (as life goal)
Sociometric (within-group) status
Weekly religious attendance
Nature exposure (≥120 min/wk)
Passive social media use
Being married (mostly selection)
Gratitude interventions
Meditation / mindfulness
Age (U-curve, nadir ~47)
Need for cognition (NFC)
Conservative ideology → happiness (small)
Internal locus of control
Happiness itself predicts: +12% productivity (Oswald 2015 RCT) · +10 yrs lifespan (Nun Study, Danner 2001) · improved immune function · −35% cardiovascular risk (Boehm-Kubzansky meta) · higher later income (De Neve-Oswald 2012). See §04 Longevity, §02 Physical Health.
02
Physical Health
Predictors of cardiovascular disease, metabolic health, immune function, and self-rated health. Mortality-specific findings in §04 Longevity.
WHAT PREDICTS PHYSICAL HEALTH — sorted by effect magnitude
Not smoking
Mediterranean diet (RCT)
Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2 max)
Social integration
Relationship quality at 50
VILPA (4.4 min/day)
BMI >35 (vs 23–24 optimal)
Loneliness / isolation
Exercise 15 min/day
Sleep <6 or >9 hrs (U-curve)
Heavy alcohol
Ultra-processed food intake
Sleep <7 hrs → infection
Chronic psychological stress
Greenspace / nature exposure
Plant-forward diet
Sauna use (4–7x/week, Finnish)
Residential greenspace
Hospital window view (surgery)
Physical inactivity
Early puberty → ↑ adult obesity / T2DM / CVD
Weight stigma (independent of weight)
Long-term night shift work → cancer / metabolic / CVD
Daily step count (dose-response)
Physical health itself predicts: mental health at 75 (Grant Study, asymmetric arrow) · life satisfaction r≈.30–.35 · earnings trajectory · marital satisfaction via reduced stress. See §03, §04, §09.
03
Mental Health
Predictors of depression, anxiety, and absence of clinical mental disorder. Flourishing beyond absence-of-illness overlaps §01 Happiness.
WHAT PREDICTS MENTAL HEALTH — sorted by effect magnitude
Low neuroticism
Secure attachment
Exercise (regular, moderate)
Childhood adversity (ACEs)
Therapy (CBT/ACT/DBT)
Sleep (quality and duration)
Social connection
Weekly religious attendance
Purpose / meaning in life
Debt / financial stress
Chronic loneliness (CTRA)
Alcoholism (cause, not symptom)
Nature exposure
Meditation / mindfulness
Unemployment (no adaptation)
Mature defenses (Vaillant)
Resilient trajectory after trauma
Ultra-processed food intake
Genetic vulnerability (severe disorders)
NFC → lower N/anxiety/depression
Early puberty (both sexes, girls larger N)
Early puberty → bulimia / self-harm / dating-violence victim
Social media (girls, post-2012)
Smartphone saturation (post-2012 cohort effect)
Heavy digital media (5+ hrs) vs light (<1 hr)
Psilocybin 25mg for TRD (Goodwin 2022)
Psilocybin for MDD (von Rotz 2023)
Psilocybin ≈ escitalopram (Carhart-Harris)
MDMA-PTSD (Lykos Phase 3)
Ketamine-AUD (Phase 3)
Semaglutide → −44% worsening depression
Semaglutide → AUD / addictive behavior ↓
Semaglutide individual-level risk (contested)
Early sexual debut (≤15) → adult substance/antisocial, NOT depression
Adolescent cannabis dependence → −8 IQ pts + schizophrenia risk
Socially-prescribed perfectionism → depression / suicide
Evening chronotype → depression / SUD
Childhood bullying victimization → adult depression / suicide
Adolescent deviant peer affiliation
Mental health itself predicts: physical health (~$326B/yr US depression burden, Greenberg 2021) · cardiovascular mortality HR~1.5 · earnings · relationship stability. See §02, §09.
04
Longevity
Every predictor of all-cause mortality or life expectancy. Longevity is a terminal outcome; no downstream effects.
WHAT PREDICTS LONGEVITY — sorted by effect magnitude
Non-smoking (+10 yrs vs smoking)
Complex social integration
Income top 1% vs bottom 1% (US ♂)
Alcohol abuse + smoking (combined)
Adventist behavioral package
VILPA 4.4 min/day
Weekly religious attendance (♀)
Relationship quality at 50
Generativity attainment (Vaillant)
Purpose in life (per SD)
Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2 max)
Sauna 4–7x/week (Finnish)
Education ≥ college (~+5 yrs)
Mediterranean diet
Loneliness / social isolation
BMI >35 (vs 23–24)
Conscientiousness (childhood)
Exercise 15 min/day
Divorce (for men)
Sleep <6 or >9 hrs (U-shape)
Ultra-processed food intake
APOE ε4 homozygous (AD pathway)
Intrinsic lifespan heritability
Blue Zones (ex-Loma Linda)
Grip strength (per 5 kg decrease)
Dispositional optimism → +11-15% lifespan
Pessimistic explanatory style → +25% mortality
05
Marriage & Romantic Partnership
Predictors of marital satisfaction, stability, and protection against divorce.
WHAT PREDICTS MARITAL SUCCESS — sorted by effect magnitude
Contempt during conflict
Alcoholism (either partner)
5:1 positive:negative ratio
Turning toward bids
Partner neuroticism (either side)
Secure attachment (either partner)
Financial strain
Criticism (character attacks)
Defensiveness + stonewalling
Shared religious attendance (weekly)
Similarity (education / values)
Partner conscientiousness + agreeableness
Marrying before age 25
Repair attempts (accepted)
Sexual satisfaction
Maintained knowledge of partner
Premarital cohabitation
Parental divorce (weak)
Five love languages framework
Attractive wife (husband's sat., 4-yr)
HEXACO Honesty-Humility → fidelity
Marriage itself predicts: +77% per-person wealth accumulation (Zagorsky) · longevity for men (divorce HR=1.37) · ↑ daily wellbeing via support · child outcomes (Grant). See §04, §07, §10.
06
Friendship & Social Connection
Predictors of strong social ties vs loneliness/isolation. Downstream health/mortality effects in §02 and §04.
WHAT PREDICTS SOCIAL CONNECTION — sorted by effect magnitude
Extraversion
Secure attachment
Physical proximity / propinquity
Shared regular activities
Hypervigilance loop (self-fulfilling)
Divorce (shrinks network)
Repeated geographic moves
High-hour / remote work
Passive social media (displaces contact)
Marriage (greedy institution)
One caring adult in childhood
Reciprocal self-disclosure
Conscientiousness (for depth)
Friendship itself predicts: OR=1.91 survival (Holt-Lunstad) · resilient trajectory after trauma · marital quality (couple-outside-friends protective) · mental health. See §02, §03, §04.
07
Parenthood
Parenthood trades hedonic happiness for meaning — well-documented in experience sampling and longitudinal data. Effects vary by child age, marital status, income, expectations.
WHAT PREDICTS PARENTAL WELLBEING — sorted by effect magnitude
Child-related meaning > moment happiness
Young children (moment-by-moment ↓)
Marital status (single vs dual)
Financial strain (magnifies hedonic cost)
First child → bump → adapts back
Teen years (lowest parental satisfaction)
Empty nest (↑ life satisfaction)
Adult-children relationships
Grandparenting (high meaning)
Intensive parenting (both sides worse)
Childless by choice (≈ parent life sat)
Involuntary childlessness (significant ↓)
Support network (coparent + village)
Adoption ≈ biological (satisfaction)
Weekly religious attendance → +fertility
Parental conflict > family structure
Advanced paternal age → ↑ autism / SCZ in offspring
Authoritative parenting style (warm + firm)
Parenthood itself predicts: high meaning (top 3 meaning sources) · late-life wellbeing via adult-child relationships · generativity (Vaillant stage 6 → +8 yrs lifespan) · identity stability. See §08, §15.
08
Meaning & Purpose
Empirically robust predictors of purpose-in-life and perceived meaning. Among the top 3 life-satisfaction predictors after personality and relationships.
WHAT PRODUCES / PREDICTS MEANING — sorted by effect magnitude
Close relationships
Parenting / caregiving
Calling orientation at work
Religious / spiritual practice (organized)
Generativity (invest in next gen)
Self-transcendent purpose (Yeager)
Meaning vs happiness dissociation
Volunteering / altruism
Work + love + suffering-with-dignity (Frankl)
Ikigai (empirical scale; not the Venn)
Materialistic life goals (negative)
Awe experiences (Keltner)
Unemployment / chronic illness / isolation
Meaning itself predicts: HR=0.85 mortality per SD (Hill & Turiano, MIDUS N=6,985) · HR=0.48 Alzheimer's risk (Boyle, Rush MAP) · life satisfaction r≈.50 · resilience after trauma. See §03, §04, §13, §14.
09
Income (annual earnings)
Predictors of adult earnings. Annual income (flow) differs from wealth (stock); wealth is §10.
WHAT PREDICTS INCOME — sorted by effect magnitude
Parental income + childhood geography
College degree (~+65% lifetime)
Field of study > degree level
Warm childhood (Grant: $343K vs $150K)
Conscientiousness
Mature coping ($369K Grant peak)
IQ / cognitive ability (diminishing)
Childhood self-control (Dunedin)
Marriage premium for men (~11%)
Industry sector
Geographic location (metro premium)
Height (~$789/inch, men)
Physical attractiveness (~10–15%)
Working hours (professional winner-take-all)
Agreeableness (negative for earnings)
Self-employment (high variance, similar mean)
Educational-attainment PGS (partly nurture)
IQ >110 → flattens (Grant)
Obesity penalty (women): −4.5% to −11.9%
Men: mild overweight premium +7-16%
Thin premium women: +7.2% (China CHIP)
Fat weight penalty vs muscle premium
Narcissism → +salary (Spurk 2016)
Psychopathy → all career outcomes ↓
Beauty premium: weaker after controls (Bortnikova)
Height × earnings: mediated by cognition
Graduating during recession → 10-yr wage scar + ↑ midlife mortality
Moving to high-opportunity area as a child (MTO)
Income itself predicts: longevity (14.6 yr gap top vs bottom 1% US ♂, Chetty 2016) · happiness log-linear for 80% / plateau $100K for 20% (K-K 2023) · marital stability (via stress reduction) · child outcomes. See §01, §04, §05, §10.
10
Wealth (accumulated net worth)
Predictors of accumulated wealth (stock). Wealth differs from income (flow) — daily wellbeing tracks income more, long-horizon outcomes track wealth.
WHAT PREDICTS WEALTH — sorted by effect magnitude
Marriage (+77% per-person wealth)
Divorce (−77% wealth; begins 4 yrs prior)
Inheritance (intergenerational transfer)
Savings rate > income level
Early-career savings (compound)
Investment discipline (not timing)
Cohabitation < marriage for wealth
Homeownership (partly selection)
Conscientiousness
Financial literacy
Debt (unsecured)
Housing >50% income (stagnation)
Scarcity → bandwidth loss → debt
Obesity × female wealth (−40% to −60%)
Wealth itself predicts: late-life autonomy · resilience to unemployment/illness · retirement security → ↓ depression · children's education access · financial-security daily wellbeing (stronger than wealth level). See §01, §03, §04, §15.
11
Career Satisfaction
Predictors of job satisfaction and vocational wellbeing. Income's contribution to job satisfaction is surprisingly weak — autonomy and fit dominate.
WHAT PREDICTS CAREER SATISFACTION — sorted by effect magnitude
Autonomy (self-determination at work)
Job Characteristics Model (5 dims)
Calling orientation (vs job / career)
Flow access at work
Supervisor quality
SDT needs at work (autonomy/competence/relatedness)
Long commute (>45 min)
Coworker social support
Job insecurity / precarity
Perceived meaningfulness of role
Pay satisfaction (r≈.15, weaker than intuited)
Skill-challenge fit (growth trajectory)
Remote work (mixed, role-dependent)
Chronic overwork (>55 hrs/wk)
Person-job fit (traits × role)
ADHD (PRS / adult inattention) → ↓ earnings, ↓ career satisfaction
Career satisfaction itself predicts: life satisfaction r≈.44 (Judge 2010) · physical/mental health · marital stability via reduced spillover stress. See §01, §02, §03.
12
Education Attainment
Predictors of years of schooling completed, educational level, and achievement within formal education.
WHAT PREDICTS EDUCATION — sorted by effect magnitude
Parental SES
IQ at age 11
Parental education (independent signal)
Childhood self-control (Dunedin)
Conscientiousness
EA polygenic score
Genetic nurture (Kong)
Early language environment (30M-word gap)
Neighborhood (post-parent-SES)
One caring adult (Kauai)
Peer academic environment
Grit (largely redundant w/ conscientiousness)
Growth mindset (small; contested)
Marshmallow test (halved in replication)
Teacher quality (Chetty)
Need for cognition → achievement (r=.20)
Birth order → IQ (firstborn +0.1 SD)
Birth order → NO personality effects
Education itself predicts: +~5 yrs longevity · income (+65% lifetime for degree) · cognitive reserve late-life · assortative mating (r≈.55 on education) · civic participation · lower depression. See §04, §09, §13.
13
Cognitive Function & Protection from Decline
Predictors of maintained cognitive function, slowed decline, and reduced dementia risk across adulthood.
WHAT PREDICTS COGNITIVE FUNCTION — sorted by effect magnitude
Education (cognitive reserve)
Purpose in life (HR=0.48 Alzheimer's)
Aerobic exercise (hippocampal volume)
MIND diet (53% slower decline)
Physical activity (28–45% dementia ↓)
Social engagement (protective)
APOE ε4 genotype
Hearing loss (midlife, untreated)
Sleep (memory consolidation)
Midlife hypertension
Mediterranean diet (sub-studies)
Midlife depression (~2x dementia)
Heavy alcohol use
Head injuries (TBI / CTE)
Cognitive engagement (use-it-or-lose-it)
Chronic loneliness → decline (CTRA)
Single-parent household → −0.11 SD cognitive (attenuates)
Childhood lead exposure → IQ loss / crime
Breastfeeding → child IQ (mostly confound)
Cognitive function itself predicts: autonomy in old age · continued wellbeing · reduced caregiver burden · mortality (cognitive decline accelerates in 2–5 yrs pre-death). See §04, §15.
14
Resilience to Adversity
Predictors of "bouncing back" from trauma, setbacks, adversity without lasting dysfunction. Resilience is the MODAL human response — not exceptional.
WHAT PREDICTS RESILIENCE — sorted by effect magnitude
Resilient trajectory is modal (50–65%)
Self-compassion (Neff)
Secure attachment
One caring adult (Kauai)
Sense of coherence (Antonovsky)
Perceived > received social support
Low neuroticism
Mature defenses (Vaillant)
Moderate prior adversity (inoculation)
Cognitive flexibility
Easy temperament (infancy)
Religious / faith involvement
Adult turnaround events (Laub-Sampson)
Cognitive ability (asset, not primary)
Ordinary Magic framework (Masten)
Resilience itself predicts: better mental health recovery · faster return to baseline after loss · protective effect against PTSD · healthier aging. See §03, §15.
15
Flourishing in Old Age
Predictors of physical + cognitive + emotional health at 75–85. Harvard Grant Study isolated 7 specific midlife predictors; each robustly replicates.
WHAT PREDICTS FLOURISHING AT 75–85 — sorted by effect magnitude
Vaillant's 7 predictors (cumulative)
Mature coping style at 50 (Grant)
Generativity attainment (+8 yrs)
Non-smoking
Absence of alcohol abuse (Grant)
Stable happy marriage at 50 (Grant)
Healthy weight at 50 (Grant)
Regular exercise middle age (Grant)
Years of education (Grant)
Socioemotional selectivity (Carstensen)
Grandchildren (top-3 meaning 60+)
Financial security (retirement)
Mobility preservation
Caregiver burden (if spouse ill)
Old-age flourishing itself is the endpoint of the causal graph — a terminal outcome containing all upstream effects. See §04 for mortality-specific predictors.
16
Status & Respect
Predictors of perceived status and social standing, and the sharp distinction between within-group status (sociometric, predictive) and socioeconomic rank (weaker predictor of wellbeing).
WHAT PREDICTS STATUS / RESPECT — sorted by effect magnitude
Upward social comparison (social media)
Meritocratic context → status anxiety
Competence + warmth (SCM)
Prosocial / generous behavior → status
Physical attractiveness
Group identification strength (moderator)
Income as status signal (weak for wellbeing)
Conspicuous consumption (diminishing)
Status itself predicts: life satisfaction (via sociometric channel, Anderson 2015) · mortality (via Whitehall gradient) · marriage prospects · career mobility. See §01, §04.
17
Wisdom
Predictors of wise reasoning — perspective-taking, intellectual humility, dialectical thinking, recognition of uncertainty. Wisdom is partly trainable and not strongly age-linked.
WHAT PREDICTS WISDOM — sorted by effect magnitude
Grossmann's wise reasoning (4 pillars)
Self-distancing (Solomon's paradox)
Reflected life experience (not just experience)
Intellectual humility
Cross-cultural exposure (deep)
Dialectical thinking (East Asian traditions)
Hard events survived + processed
Mentorship exposure (both directions)
Emotion regulation skill
Openness to experience
Age (modest, not strong)
Ego / identity consolidation (Loevinger)
Domain expertise alone (insufficient)
Wisdom itself predicts: better decision outcomes · stronger relationships · lower reactive conflict · mentorship capacity (accelerates next generation). See §05, §08, §15.