Can a roller coaster strengthen human relationships and influence our well-being?
In the summer of 2026, Liseberg will transform into a living research laboratory as Professor Micael Dahlen and the Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness at the Stockholm School of Economics (CWWH), together with affiliated researchers from Karolinska Institutet and the London School of Economics, initiate a collaboration with the Nordic region’s largest amusement park through The Liseberg Happiness Lab.
Each year, Liseberg welcomes more than two million visitors who share millions of powerful moments across the park’s attractions. This makes Liseberg a unique environment for studying human happiness, well-being and social relationships at scale—and in real-life settings beyond the traditional laboratory.
For more than 100 years, Liseberg has been a place where people come together to share powerful experiences—through laughter, anticipation and that thrill in your stomach. It is incredibly exciting that we can now enable research to gain a deeper understanding of what these moments actually mean for us as human beings, both here in the park and beyond its gates
Andreas Andersen, CEO of Liseberg
The Liseberg Happiness Lab
The Liseberg Happiness Lab is a research collaboration between Liseberg and a research group at the Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness at the Stockholm School of Economics, with affiliated researchers from Karolinska Institutet and the London School of Economics.
The collaboration includes several research tracks focusing on joy, togetherness and human well-being. The project aims to explore how shared experiences and so-called eustress—a positive form of stress that arises from meaningful and manageable challenges and can enhance motivation, performance and well-being—affect people both in the short and long term.
Through The Liseberg Happiness Lab, the research team has a unique opportunity to test hypotheses and deepen our understanding of what actually happens when people experience things together. Can shared adrenaline rushes strengthen human bonds? Can intense positive experiences influence our well-being both immediately and long after the ride is over?
Through many research projects at CWWH, we have learned that when people feel good, they do good—and that this has positive effects on individuals, organisations and society. We know a great deal about the negative effects of stress, but far less about what intense joy actually does to us as human beings. Liseberg offers a unique opportunity to study this in a real-world setting
Micael Dahlen, Professor at the Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness
Measurements will be conducted in multiple ways before, during and after visits to Liseberg. Data will be collected both through surveys and with equipment measuring physiological responses in real time.
As part of the project, more than one thousand voluntary participant, “citizen researchers”, will take part in studies during the summer of 2026. Visitors will be able to sign up for different projects via the Liseberg website. The research findings will be published both in academic journals and in reports aimed at a broader audience.
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