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Robert Waldinger

MD · Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development · Clinical professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital · co-author of The Good Life

Go-to expert for: relationships as a health factor

Who and why

Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of adult life. The study has followed 724 men since 1938, and now their children, and its clearest message is that warm relationships go hand in hand with better health and happiness. His 2015 TEDx talk on the study is one of the most-watched TED talks.

Why it matters after 50: Social circles often shrink after 50 through retirement, moves and loss. The Harvard data suggest the quality of your close relationships in midlife may matter for your health in your 80s.

What Waldinger recommends

  • People who were most satisfied in their relationships at 50 were the healthiest at 80; relationship satisfaction predicted later health better than midlife cholesterol.Some evidence
  • Treat loneliness as a health risk. Long-term loneliness is linked to greater sensitivity to pain, a weaker immune system, poorer brain function and less effective sleep.Some evidence
  • Quality matters more than numbers. A satisfying close relationship, such as a happy marriage, was linked to steadier mood even on days with more pain.Some evidence
  • Practise social fitness: like exercise, relationships need regular upkeep. Reach out to people who energise you, even ones you rarely see.Personal habit
  • Protect time for the people you care about. A weekly hour-long coffee with a friend from 40 to 80 adds up to only about 87 days together, so notice when phones and work crowd it out.Personal habit

Signature: The Harvard Study of Adult Development

Started in 1938 with 268 Harvard students and later 456 young men from inner-city Boston, the study has tracked participants' health and lives for more than 85 years and now follows over 1,300 of their children. Waldinger, its fourth director, summarised its lessons with associate director Marc Schulz in The Good Life (2023).

In your plan

Choose him for stress and connection: small weekly relationship habits, outside your training time.

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Research and honest caveats

Love, health and daily mood in couples in their 80s

In 47 older married couples followed for eight days, a satisfying marriage softened the drop in mood on days with health problems.

Waldinger & Schulz, Psychology and Aging, 2010

  • The Harvard Study is observational, so it shows strong links, not proof that relationships cause better health; healthier people may also find it easier to keep good relationships. The original groups were all men, though wives and children were added later.

Career highlights

  1. 1938The Harvard Study of Adult Development begins (Grant Study)
  2. 2010Published a study of married couples in their 80s showing that a good marriage buffered daily health stress
  3. 2015Gave the TEDx talk What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness
  4. 2023Published The Good Life with Marc Schulz

Sources