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Lunch Hour Lecture | Why sharing meals can make people happier
22 May 2025, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm
This lecture uses novel data for 142 countries and territories, finding stark differences in rates of meal sharing around the world.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
UCL Events
About the lecture:
In the first half, the talk will offer a brief overview of the 2025 World Happiness Report, which gathered seven studies about the role of caring and sharing for people’s happiness around the world. In the second half, it will focus on Chapter 3, which presents new evidence on an understudied measure of social connection – sharing meals. Using novel data for 142 countries and territories, the study finds stark differences in rates of meal sharing around the world. Sharing meals proves to be an exceptionally strong indicator of subjective wellbeing, and this is true across ages, genders, countries, cultures, and regions. A focus on the United States shows clear evidence that Americans are spending more and more time dining alone, in particular the younger generation.
UCL's popular public Lunch Hour Lecture series has been running at UCL since 1942, and showcases the exceptional research work being undertaken across UCL. Lectures are free and open to all and since 2020 have been held online.
About the Speaker
Dr Alberto Prati
Assistant Professor at UCL
Alberto Prati studied econometrics and philosophy, before pursuing a PhD in economics. He is currently a Lecturer in Economics at UCL, where he teaches how to combine economic methods and psychological concepts to answer public policy questions. He also serves as a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and an Associate Researcher at the London School of Economics. He studies various topics at the intersection of economics and psychology, including wellbeing measurement, opinion dynamics and behavioural biases.