PROMPT: As stated in the essay, “Good Genes are Nice, but Joy is Better,” the 85-plus
year long Harvard Study of Adult Development revealed that, “close relationships, more
than money, career, or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. Those
ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and
are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.”
Robert Waldinger, the current director of the Harvard Study, expanded on this
information in his 2015 TED Talk, saying, “When we gathered together everything we
knew about [the group of people included in the Study] at age 50, it wasn’t their middle-
age cholesterol levels that predicted how they were going to grow old… the people who
were most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80.” The
researchers found that warm relationships have a positive effect on both physical and
mental health. Waldinger goes on to state in his TED Talk that, “loneliness kills. It’s as
powerful as smoking or alcoholism.”
INSTRUCTIONS: Assuming the results of this study are accurate, write a well-developed and well-organized essay in which you argue which qualities, characteristics, or abilities are the most important to facilitate a person having “warm, happy relationships.” Support your position, providing reasons and examples from your own experience, observations, research, and reading.