Background and Hypothesis: The world is facing a mental health crisis. One in eight people worldwide struggle with their psychological health. With such diverse mental health challenges, the solution needs to be equally diverse. In this talk I present my grant-funded research program examining the efficacy of a novel interactive education program integrating diverse insights from across the psychological sciences to foster well-being. A wealth of evidence shows that biases in how we think, called cognitive biases, profoundly impact our well-being. Still, existing intervention approaches primarily focus on only one debiasing approach, or one facet of well-being. In contrast, my lab adopted, and tested, a multi-faceted approach that combines several well-established debiasing techniques into an easy-to-use online education program. Our driving hypothesis is that integrating multiple evidence-based techniques into an engaging and accessible online program will offer the best results for optimizing social-emotional health.


Methods and Discussion. Pre- & Post-test Battery: Our experiments begin and end with a multi-faceted assessment consisting of well-validated measures of different facets of social emotional health (e.g., anxiety, depression, loneliness, stress, and quality of life indices) as well as measures of cognitive biases. Participants then complete a series of online interactive lessons that distill cognitive science research into short, engaging summaries of evidence-based strategies for minimizing these biases and enhancing well-being. These lessons are grounded in high-quality peer-reviewed research showing effective pedagogical approaches, including interactive learning, self-relevant content, practical examples, and formative feedback. These lessons are accessible to a broad audience and 'gamified' (e.g., incorporating visuals, interactive exercises) to enhance engagement and retention. I will review key findings highlighting the efficacy of this work and its many practical applications. I also hope to inspire new practical applications and collaborations and solicit feedback for expanding this initiative globally to improve well-being.