The Science of Well-Being

What you'll learn

Taught by Professor Laurie Santos, this Coursera course runs you through a series of challenges designed to raise your own happiness and build more productive habits, while unpacking the misconceptions about happiness and the quirks of the mind that keep steering us wrong in the first place.

Who it's for

Anyone genuinely curious about the psychology of happiness — not just self-help framing, but the research behind why our intuitions about what makes us happy are so often mistaken.

Why it's worth it

This is one of the more recognizable courses to come out of Coursera precisely because it treats happiness as something you can study and act on, not just feel. Working through the challenges yourself, rather than only reading about the research, is what makes the difference stick.