Forming science-industry partnerships to link everyday behaviors to well-being

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT In an age of unprecedented longevity, health and well-being in old age reflect decisions and behavioral practices that span decades. Seemingly minor decisions and actions people take in everyday life have cumulative, long-term consequences that affect stress, opportunities for engagement, and health in old age. Financial security is strongly related to physical and mental health, and the majority of Americans are not financially secure. Even among those who have sufficient resources to save and invest, many lack the skills and motivation required to engage in wise planning and habits that support health and well-being at advanced ages. Independent of the potential causal relationships among financial health, physical health and psychological well-being, long-term financial and health-related planning share many common features. Social science is beginning to address these issues but the vast amount of existing research relies on individuals' performance on hypothetical tasks in laboratory settings or responses on surveys. Private industries often have very large and rich data resources that reflect behavior in everyday life. A lack of connection between well-controlled laboratory studies and actual behavior creates a major barrier to progress in understanding behavior and developing scalable interventions to improve financial, mental, and physical health. The financial services and healthcare industries are key stakeholders in finding effective solutions but at present collaborations between social scientists and private sector companies are limited to occasional consulting and proprietary research. Collaborations are typically difficult to establish, limited by complex privacy concerns, logistical issues and mutual distrust about how the findings might be used. Yet, partnerships between researchers and private sector companies represent extraordinary opportunities to answer important questions about decisions and actions that predict long-term health outcomes. The goal of this project is to bring a unique interdisciplinary perspective to the understanding of optimal and suboptimal decision making across adulthood. By training early-stage researchers to effectively establish research partnerships with industry, we can facilitate the development of research projects that promise to improve health and financial well-being for aging individuals and society.