Paul Dolan

From consumers and citizens to employees, employers, parents and policymakers, is it possible to simply and practically add more pleasure and purpose to life? According to human behavior researcher and happiness expert Paul Dolan, in the quest to become happier in work and life, we may be missing the most obvious steps.

The first Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and creator of the school’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, Dolan is a pioneer in measuring happiness through research-backed techniques. His groundbreaking work designing the personal wellbeing survey for the UK’s Office for National Statistics is still in use today.

With a distinctive combination of substance and style, Dolan mixes academic rigor with straight-talking, accessible, informative and entertaining presentations. His work at the intersection of psychology and economics, as well as organizational and policy change, explores how and why we make various choices in our personal lives and careers, and how we can make better ones.

“My goal is to help individuals, corporations and policymakers make better decisions,” explains Dolan, author of two bestselling happiness books, “Happiness by Design” (2015) and “Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myths of the Perfect Life” (2019). “The only way you can do that is to have sensible, reasonable, reliable metrics of what it is you’re trying to achieve.”

With a trio of separate but related checklists based on rigorously researched behavioral science that can be adapted to a variety of highly interactive custom formats, he empowers leaders to create uplifting workplaces where employees can thrive.

Breaking Down the Basics of How to Nudge Behavior Change

A powerful example of these unique frameworks is Dolan’s MINDSPACE checklist, which he created for the UK government’s Behavioural Insights Team, or “the Nudge Unit.” In it, he outlines the most robust ways to influence human behavior such as how to identify the best messengers, understand the power of incentives, encourage commitment and more.

“The ‘M’ of MINDSPACE is ‘messenger.’ When you’re delivering a message, don’t spend all your time on crafting the most effective message,” explains Dolan, named one of the 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. “Of course, the message matters. But the delivery of that message, the vehicle through which it is presented, is orders of magnitude more important.”

With the potential for big effects from very small changes, MINDSPACE takes a refreshingly non-traditional approach to enabling leaders such as corporate executives and government policymakers to nudge people into seamlessly changing their behavior while not having to think too hard about it.

Bring Pleasure and Purpose to Life and the Workplace Through the Science of Happiness

Creator of the singularly engaging GET HAPPIER podcast miniseries and a trailblazer in applying scientific methods to measure notoriously hard-to-quantify attributes like happiness, Dolan takes on the age-old question of how humans can lead more satisfying lives.

In his GET HAPPIER framework, Dolan zooms in on powerful tactics such as using effective behavioral science approaches to break free from harmful habit loops, understanding the role of work and the workplace in determining happiness, and more.

“Achieving happiness is the essence of what it is to live, and many times we pay attention to what’s in front of us rather than what’s substantively important,” Dolan explains. “Leaders can boost both well-being and productivity through these critical behavior-change steps that are obvious but often overlooked.”

Tolerance by Design: How to Banish “Beliefism”

As society continues to become further divided, especially in a time of radical uncertainty due to the rise of technologies like AI, how can leaders creatively build bridges to incorporate a wide range of perspectives when making important decisions?

Dolan astutely points out that humans are naturally drawn to people who agree with them but discrimination, both conscious and subconscious, against those who hold different beliefs – what he refers to as “beliefism” – needs to be addressed. The focus of his next book, “Beliefism: How to Stop Hating the People We Disagree With” (The Bridge Street Press, May 2025) – and his brand new podcast, Breaking Beliefism – Dolan’s evidence-based EMBRACE checklist aims to do just that.

“We’re fundamentally wired not to like people that disagree with us, but well-functioning societies have a distribution of people with a diversity of beliefs across them,” Dolan reveals. “Cognitive diversity is a cornerstone of effective decision making, but many leaders struggle with properly measuring and embedding it in their organization. Having difficult conversations is indeed difficult but gets you to a better place in the end.”

EMBRACE reframes how differences in outlooks are viewed to instead spotlight what makes us similar. Through this mindset shift, leaders can unlock the consequential competitive advantage to be gained from including a diversity of people and perspectives when creating organizational strategy.

Truly unparalleled assets to any public or private organization, Dolan’s accessible, immediately applicable paradigm-shifting frameworks – MINDSPACE, GET HAPPIER and EMBRACE – can be presented as highly customized keynotes, engaging and interactive workshops or collaborative advisory arrangements.

With an expertise in happiness, narratives, social class, economics, psychology and polarization, Paul Dolan is a highly sought-after speaker on the science behind human behavior and happiness.

A professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Dolan is the author of the bestselling books, “Happiness by Design” (2014) and “Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myths of the Perfect Life” (2019), and has more than 140 peer-reviewed articles with over 34,000 citations.

Speaking to Fortune 500 companies and government bodies alike, Dolan outlines how behavioral science can help organizations better achieve their objectives. Named as one of the 100 Most Influential Academics in Government, he is the lead author of “Mindspace: Influencing Behaviour Through Public Policy,” published by The Institute for Government, and wrote the questions that are used by the U.K. Office for National Statistics to monitor national well-being.

Fascinated by the polarization problem and how the challenges of the modern age require that we listen to dissenting voices, Dolan has just finished writing a book on how we can learn to listen to people we disagree with that’s scheduled to be released in 2025.

Paul Dolan is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.