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Summary of Michael Plant's talk:

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1. Increasing the happiness of currently existing people is intrinsically good, but little research has been done on the most effective ways to improve world happiness.

2. Poverty and physical health may not be top priorities for improving happiness; mental health and ordinary human unhappiness should be focused on instead.

3. Hedonic adaptation and social comparison may explain why economic growth does not necessarily lead to increased life satisfaction.

4. For example, efforts to reduce poverty and improve physical health through initiatives like GiveDirectly and deworming may have limited effects on long- lasting happiness due to hedonic adaptation and social comparisons..

5. Focusing on non-adaptive and non-comparative problems, such as mental health, pain, and ordinary human unhappiness, can lead to more effective interventions.

6. Psychotherapies like CBT can durably improve life satisfaction for depression/anxiety at a lower cost than cash transfers or health interventions per life year.

7. Restrictions on opioids and lack of training limit access to pain treatment in developing countries, though reforms could help close the "pain gap" for low costs.

8. Overall, targeting mental health and pain directly may do more to increase happiness than focusing on poverty or physical health alone.