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Michael Gurven

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Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Scholars have long assumed happiness was like a U-shaped curve − which looks a bit like a smile. Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images

January 28, 2025

Happiness in poorer countries does not follow the typical U‑shaped curve − people are often happiest in middle age

Michael Gurven, University of California, Santa Barbara

In nonindustrialized societies, health, productivity and economic security play much larger roles in determining happiness among aging populations, a new study finds.

Tsimane children look out over the Maniqui River, in the Bolivian Amazon. Michael Gurven

October 28, 2020

People’s bodies now run cooler than ‘normal’ – even in the Bolivian Amazon

Michael Gurven, University of California, Santa Barbara and Thomas Kraft, University of California, Santa Barbara

‘Normal’ body temperature has declined in urban, industrialized settings like the US and UK. Anthropologists find the trend extends to Indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon – but why?

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Location: Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
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Joined October 26, 2020