ICTs and happiness Fulvio Castellacci TIK & ESST Master University of Oslo, February 2016

Background and questions Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming several aspects of our life Innovation research on ICTs focuses on their economic effects (e.g. productivity growth and organizational changes) This project seeks to investigate a new question: how do ICTs affect individuals’ happiness? Happiness (subjective well-being): “self-assessment that individuals give of their own life satisfaction and quality of life” (Layard, 2005)

Project framework and objectives A new project coordinated by TIK and funded by the Norwegian Research Council ( ). [Project webpage]Project webpage Partners: Department of Psychology (UiO); NUPI (Oslo); SPRU (University of Sussex) The objective of this project is to investigate the broad research question on the relationships between ICTs use and individuals’ happiness Broad thematic scope: this relationship will be studied in distinct contexts: (1) working life; (2) private life; (3) external environment

Themes of interest for Master students Working life (WP4): How does the use of ICTs at work affect employees well-being and life satisfaction? Health (WP5): How does the use of ICTs shape individuals’ life satisfaction through their effects on health? Education and e-skills (WP5): How does the use of ICTs shape individuals’ life satisfaction through their effects on education and human capital (e-skills)? Data and empirical methods: interviews, survey, text analysis, ethnographic methods

Contact persons at TIK On «working life» (WP4): Fulvio On «ICTs and health» (WP5): Magnus or Taran On «education and e-skills» (WP5): Fulvio A supervisor will be assigned by TIK depending on your thematic interests and available resources