First-Ever Biometric Peace Index Puts the Human Nervous System Alongside GDP and Conflict Counts as a Measure of How the World Is Doing
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link.
NEW YORK, Oct. 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IN TRUTH, the world’s first biometric emotion detection system, unveiled the first findings of the Biometric Peace Index, the world’s first physiological measure of peace, at a side event of the United Nations General Assembly. Drawing on physiological data from a synchronized global meditation held with 131 global communities on August 8, 2026, the founding dataset shows that participants’ Peace Alignment Score rose from a baseline near 50 to approximately 80 during the meditation, showing community emotional co-regulation.
“This is a substantial and statistically significant finding, proving that peace is an internal architecture as much as it is a set of affairs,” said Nicole Gibson, Founder and CEO of IN TRUTH. “The Biometric Peace Index shows us that if peace is an internal state that we can attain and measure, it can become a KPI no different from any other on the desks of global leaders.”
What the data shows
On August 8, 2026, IN TRUTH activated 131 communities globally for a synchronized moment of collective peace, with a meditation window of roughly 30 minutes at its center. Participants wearing consumer wearables connected through the IN TRUTH app, contributing physiological signals and journaled emotions to a shared, consent-based research effort.
- Heart rate fell approximately 10 bpm during the synchronized meditation, measured against each participant’s own daily rhythm, while heart rate variability rose 10–20 percent — the signature of calm rather than sleep.
- The share of journaled feelings that were pleasant rose from 55 percent (the month before) to 73 percent on activation day, and to approximately 83 percent during the meditation itself.
- The Peace Alignment Score — a 0-to-100 score combining physiological and journaled data — rose from a baseline near 50 to approximately 80 during the synchronized meditation, its highest point across the full period measured.
The science
Dr. Andy Heusser, Chief of Science & AI at IN TRUTH, explained that the Index reads two signals: the body (heart rate and heart rate variability, showing how activated or calm someone is) and journaled language (showing whether a moment feels pleasant or difficult). Together they form an emotional matrix in which peace sits at the intersection of calm and pleasant. IN TRUTH is now inviting three kinds of partners into the next phase of the work to scale and grow the scientific validation of this early proof of concept: organizations with continuous physiological data at scale, partners with live language data, and partners running cohorts or events suited to joint studies.
Partners and announcements
The launch also marked several new partnerships and commitments:
- The IN TRUTH Foundation: IN TRUTH announced the formation of a new foundation as the philanthropic home for this work, with Jan Owen AM — former CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians — named inaugural Chair. The Foundation will keep the Index’s methods, data and findings open; direct funding and resilience tools to communities the market doesn’t reach; and use the evidence to help move philanthropic and government funding further upstream, ahead of crisis. “As of now, we have no early warning system for the human storm—stress building in families, in communities, in people, long before it breaks as a mental health crisis or as conflict. The Biometric Peace Index is the first sign that an early warning system for people is possible,” said Jan Owen AM, Incoming Chair, IN TRUTH Foundation.
- Global AI Academy: Giovanni Tomaselli, Director of the Global AI Academy, said the network expects to grow to more than 100 hubs worldwide by the end of next year, and pointed to its relationship with the Vatican’s Magnifica Humanitas Foundation as a guiding partnership for human-centered AI. “The Global AI Academy is proud to stand with Nicole and IN TRUTH today, because the future of AI cannot simply be about what technology can do,” said Tomaselli. “It must ultimately be about who we choose to become. People first in the AI revolution.”
- Philanthropic Leadership from Rovex Group SA: Christina-Anne Kyosti, Director of Rovex Group, one of her family’s entities for philanthropy, announced that she has made a formal pledge to the IN TRUTH Foundation. Kyosti said the challenge for family offices and principals is not a willingness to give but knowing where the money should go. She noted that the tension between private wealth and public accountability is driving a sweeping data transformation across the philanthropy sector. “We need to move from intuitive-driven philanthropy to data-driven philanthropy,” said Kyosti. “The Biometric Peace Index is input to a multi-perspective, contextual intelligence that allows us to treat peace as critical infrastructure from an investment point of view and from a philanthropic point of view.”
- Football for Peace: Football for Peace USA announced it will become an official impact partner of IN TRUTH and the Biometric Peace Index, bringing the science of emotional regulation into the world’s most-watched sport and exploring how matches and community programs can produce measurable peace outcomes. “Together, we want to combine the universal reach of football with meaningful data and human insight, helping to build a stronger evidence base for the role that sports can play in peacebuilding,” said Steve Lee, Executive Director, Football for Peace USA.
- Additional media and civil society partnerships: Rebecca Irby, of PEAC Institute and CoNGO, the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, spoke to a co-design process bringing community and civil society voices into how the Index defines and measures peace going forward. “The opportunity here is not simply a new number; it is a new relationship between data, lived experience, and participation,” said Irby. “If we can build that relationship with scientific rigor and with communities, rather with them instead of just for them, then this work will add something meaningful to the global conversation on peace.”
- Peter Young, Founder and CEO of Hubcast International, spoke to Hubcast’s new civil society media suite in New York as a “doorway” connecting civil society organizations and communities worldwide to global broadcast infrastructure.
What’s next
IN TRUTH hosted an afternoon co-design session with partners and community representatives to shape how the Index scales, including how to lower barriers to data collection such as wearable access and onboarding at large events. IN TRUTH is actively seeking partnership agreements with organizations who want to take part.
Multimedia assets
- Data visualization here
- Photos from 9.22 press conference here
- Video assets from 9.22 press conference here
- Full 9.22 press conference video here
Data visualization and photos provided courtesy of IN TRUTH; video assets provided courtesy of Hubcast.
About IN TRUTH
IN TRUTH is the world’s first biometric emotion detection system that maps your inner world and reflects it back to you. The platform bridges neuroscience with human experience to empower individuals, teams and societies to connect with greater emotional intelligence. IN TRUTH builds tools that reveal emotional patterns without overriding human agency. Awareness is the intervention: the data becomes your mirror, and your choices stay yours. IN TRUTH is a subsidiary organization of Love Out Loud, PBC. For more information visit intruth.io | globalpeaceactivation.org | peace.intruth.io
Media Contact
Erin Clinton Haworth | erin@clintonhaworthcollective.com | 201-602-0881
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