Good Times
Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn
Journal of Happiness Studies, April 2011, Pages 225-243
Abstract:
This paper compares the working hours and life satisfaction of Americans and Europeans using the World Values Survey, Eurobarometer and General Social Survey. The purpose is to explore the relationship between working hours and happiness in Europe and America. Previous research on the topic does not test the premise that working more makes Americans happier than Europeans. The findings suggest that Americans may be happier working more because they believe more than Europeans do that hard work is associated with success.
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Productivity effects of innovation, stress and social relations
Robin Cowan, Bulat Sanditov & Rifka Weehuizen
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
Innovation is a source of increasing productivity, but also of stress. Psychological research shows that individual productivity increases and then decreases as stress levels increase. Agents' stress levels are determined by their own coping ability and by (positive and negative) spillovers to their social contacts. We model stress and inter-agent dynamics, identifying the relationships between innovation, stress and productivity. We characterize conditions under which multiple equilibria exist; and under which the dynamics exhibit hysteresis. High rates of innovation can result in high stress equilibrium and have a negative effect on economic growth.
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Subjective Well-Being and National Satisfaction: Findings From a Worldwide Survey
Mike Morrison, Louis Tay & Ed Diener
Psychological Science, February 2011, Pages 166-171
Abstract:
We examined the relationship between satisfaction with one's country (national satisfaction) and subjective well-being utilizing data from a representative worldwide poll. National satisfaction was a strong positive predictor of individual-level life satisfaction, and this relationship was moderated by household income, household conveniences, residential mobility, country gross domestic product per capita, and region (Western vs. non-Western country). When individuals are impoverished or more bound to their culture and surroundings, national satisfaction more strongly predicts life satisfaction. In contrast, reverse trends were found in analyses predicting life satisfaction from satisfaction in other domains (health, standard of living, and job). These patterns suggest that people are more likely to use proximate factors to judge life satisfaction where conditions are salutary, or individualism is salient, but are more likely to use perceived societal success to judge life satisfaction where life conditions are difficult, or collectivism predominates. Our findings invite new research directions and can inform quality-of-life therapies.
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John Garry & Maria Lohan
Journal of Happiness Studies, March 2011, Pages 41-49
Abstract:
Using data from a 2007 survey in Northern Ireland (representative sample, N = 1036), we replicate and extend the US-based findings of Lacey et al. (Journal of Happiness Studies 7:167-182, 2006). Consistent with Lacey et al., we find that young people mispredict happiness levels in old age, believing - wrongly - that happiness declines with age. We explore the possible implications of this under-estimation of happiness in old age for the risky health behaviours of young people. We find that young male binge drinkers are particularly prone to thinking that happiness declines with age.
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"The Great Transformation" and Suicide: Local and Long-Lasting Effects of 1930 Bank Suspensions
Robert Baller, Phil Levchak & Mark Schultz
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, December 2010, Pages 574-586
Abstract:
Depression-era bank suspensions and failures are conceptualized as products of the first part of what Polanyi (1994) called "The Great Transformation," which involved an imbalanced institutional arrangement in which the economy dominated other institutions. Relying on Durkheim (1897/1951) and Merton (1938, 1968), it is argued that these banking problems accentuated the type of chronic anomie that Durkheim theorized would create normative deregulation and elevated suicide rates over the long-term. Results from county-level analyses are supportive as the 1930 bank suspension rate is positively related to the 2000 suicide rate, controlling for contemporary and historical factors. The mediating roles of integration and chronic anomie are considered, with the latter measured using data from the geocoded General Social Survey.
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Chinese Singaporeans' lay beliefs, adherence to Asian values, and subjective well-being
Joel Wong et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, April 2011, Pages 822-827
Abstract:
This study examined the relationships among Chinese Singaporeans' lay beliefs about subjective well-being, adherence to Asian values (as measured by the Asian American Values Scale), and self-reported subjective well-being (as measured by the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form). Participants were 210 undergraduate students of Chinese descent (mean age = 21.01 years) in a Singaporean university. Participants provided responses to an open-ended question about what it means to be happy. Participants' responses were coded according to whether they endorsed positivity beliefs and dialectical beliefs about happiness. Positivity beliefs were positively related to life satisfaction, but only among those with low adherence to Asian values. Among participants who strongly adhered to Asian values, positivity beliefs were not significantly related to life satisfaction. Beliefs about happiness were not related to negative affect. However, participants who endorsed dialectical beliefs reported less positive affect.
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A Different Rationale for Redistribution: Pursuit of Happiness in the European Union
John Cullis, John Hudson & Philip Jones
Journal of Happiness Studies, April 2011, Pages 323-341
Abstract:
This paper considers the role of redistribution in the light of recent research findings on self reported happiness. The analysis and empirical work reported here tries to relate this to a representative actor 'homo realitus' and the 'pursuit of happiness' rather than the traditional 'homo economicus'. Econometrically estimating the determinants of happiness in the European Union (EU) using Eurobarometer data and the construction of an 'Index of Happiness' facilitates policy simulations. Such simulations find that in terms of average happiness there is little advantage to redistributing income within a country, but more from redistributing income between countries. The importance for happiness of relative income, average standard of living, marital status and age are confirmed. The theoretical rationale for redistribution is also examined.
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Robert Metcalfe, Nattavudh Powdthavee & Paul Dolan
Economic Journal, February 2011, Pages F81-F103
Abstract:
Using a longitudinal household panel dataset in the UK, where a significant proportion of the interviews are conducted in September each year, we are able to show that the attacks of September 11 resulted in lower levels of subjective well-being for those interviewed after that date in 2001 compared with those interviewed before it. This quasi-experiment provides one of the first examples of the impact of a terrorist attack in one country on well-being in another country.
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Lara Aknin, Gillian Sandstrom, Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton
PLoS ONE, February 2011, e17018
Abstract:
Previous research has shown that spending money on others (prosocial spending) increases happiness. But, do the happiness gains depend on who the money is spent on? Sociologists have distinguished between strong ties with close friends and family and weak ties-relationships characterized by less frequent contact, lower emotional intensity, and limited intimacy. We randomly assigned participants to reflect on a time when they spent money on either a strong social tie or a weak social tie. Participants reported higher levels of positive affect after recalling a time they spent on a strong tie versus a weak tie. The level of intimacy in the relationship was more important than the type of relationship; there was no significant difference in positive affect after recalling spending money on a family member instead of a friend. These results add to the growing literature examining the factors that moderate the link between prosocial behaviour and happiness.
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Insights on Unemployment, Unemployment Insurance, and Mental Health
Nathan Tefft
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper contributes to the growing literature on the relationship between business cycles and mental health. It is one of the first applications in the economics literature to incorporate data on web searches from Google Insights for Search, and these unique data allow the opportunity to estimate the association between weekly unemployment insurance (UI) claims, in addition to monthly unemployment rates, and search indexes for "depression" and "anxiety." Results from state fixed effects models yield 1) a positive relationship between the unemployment rate and the depression search index and 2) a negative relationship between initial UI claims on the one hand and the depression and anxiety search indexes on the other. A lag analysis also shows that an extended period of higher levels of continued UI claims is associated with a higher depression search index.
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Too Much of a Good Thing: The Challenge and Opportunity of the Inverted U
Adam Grant & Barry Schwartz
Perspectives on Psychological Science, January 2011, Pages 61-76
Abstract:
Aristotle proposed that to achieve happiness and success, people should cultivate virtues at mean or intermediate levels between deficiencies and excesses. In stark contrast to this assertion that virtues have costs at high levels, a wealth of psychological research has focused on demonstrating the well-being and performance benefits of positive traits, states, and experiences. This focus has obscured the prevalence and importance of nonmonotonic inverted-U-shaped effects, whereby positive phenomena reach inflection points at which their effects turn negative. We trace the evidence for nonmonotonic effects in psychology and provide recommendations for conceptual and empirical progress. We conclude that for psychology in general and positive psychology in particular, Aristotle's idea of the mean may serve as a useful guide for developing both a descriptive and a prescriptive account of happiness and success.
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Martin Binder & Alex Coad
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
Standard regression techniques are only able to give an incomplete picture of the relationship between subjective well-being and its determinants since the very idea of conventional estimators such as OLS is the averaging out over the whole distribution: studies based on such regression techniques thus are implicitly only interested in Average Joe's happiness. Using cross-sectional data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for the year 2006, we apply quantile regressions to analyze effects of a set of explanatory variables on different quantiles of the happiness distribution and compare these results with a standard regression. Among our results we observe a decreasing importance of income, health status and social factors with increasing quantiles of happiness. Another finding is that education has a positive association with happiness at the lower quantiles but a negative association at the upper quantiles. We explore the robustness of our findings in various ways.
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Do positive children become positive adults? Evidence from a longitudinal birth cohort study
Marcus Richards & Felicia Huppert
Journal of Positive Psychology, January 2011, Pages 75-87
Abstract:
Little is known about the long-term consequences of positive well-being in childhood in the general population. We analysed data from the British 1946 birth cohort study to test associations between adolescent positive well-being and well-being in midlife. Positive and negative behaviours at ages 13 and 15 were rated by school teachers, and personality was assessed when the children were 16 years. Positive childhood behaviour was associated with midlife well-being; specifically a low probability of lifetime emotional problems, satisfaction with work, a high frequency of contact with friends or family and engagement in social activities. Happy children in this cohort were no more likely to marry, but significantly more likely to divorce. These associations were independent of childhood social class, childhood cognition, educational attainment, midlife occupational social class and extraversion. From this longitudinal study, we conclude that childhood well-being predicts positive adult well-being, and not merely the absence of mental ill-health.
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Daniel Heller et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article examined the effect of temporal perspective on the multifaceted future self (i.e., affect, traits, self-narratives). Participants imagined themselves in the near versus distant future, and subsequently predicted their affect (Experiment 1), traits (Experiment 2), and naturalistic self-concepts (Experiment 3). Drawing from the Construal Level Theory and self-enhancement literatures, we hypothesized and found across three experiments that predictions of one's self in the distant future are more positive than predictions of one's self in the near future. Furthermore, building upon literature on the existence of normative and culturally sanctioned implicit theories of positive growth throughout the life span, we hypothesized and found that increased temporal distance yielded less variable predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives (all three experiments) and that higher-level attributions mediated the effect of temporal perspective on the positivity of self-narratives (Experiment 3) and that. Time distance leads to more positive and less variable future selves.
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Suffer the Little Children: Measuring the Effects of Parenthood on Well-Being Worldwide
Luca Stanca
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates the relationship between parenthood and well-being in a large sample of individuals from 94 countries world-wide. We find that having children is negatively related to well-being. Conditioning on economic and socio-demographic characteristics can only partially help to explain this finding. We show that the negative effect of parenthood on well-being is explained by a large adverse impact on financial satisfaction, that dominates the positive impact on non-financial satisfaction. The results are robust to the use of alternative empirical specifications and to the inclusion of the reported ideal number of children as a proxy variable to take into account the endogeneity of parenthood decisions.
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Gratitude and the Reduced Costs of Materialism in Adolescents
Jeffrey Froh et al.
Journal of Happiness Studies, April 2011, Pages 289-302
Abstract:
Materialistic youth seem to be languishing while grateful youth seem to be flourishing. High school students (N = 1,035) completed measures of materialism, gratitude, academic functioning, envy, depression, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption. Using structural equation modeling, we found that gratitude, controlling for materialism, uniquely predicts all outcomes considered: higher grade point average, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption, as well as lower envy and depression. In contrast, materialism, controlling for gratitude, uniquely predicts three of the six outcomes: lower grade point average, as well as higher envy and life satisfaction. Furthermore, when examining the relative strengths of gratitude and materialism as predictors, we found that gratitude is generally a stronger predictor of these six outcomes than is materialism.
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Allen McConnell, Elizabeth Dunn, Sara Austin & Catherine Rawn
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigated implicit knowledge and affective forecasting, reasoning that although conscious evaluations are available to people when predicting their future emotional responses, nonconscious evaluations are not. However, these automatically-activated evaluations should contribute to in-the-moment emotional experiences, and thus they should account for misforecasts (i.e., discrepancies between affective forecasts and actual experiences). We conducted two studies to explore affective misforecasts, using food items as stimuli. In Study 1, participants' implicit attitudes (but not their explicit attitudes) predicted misforecasts of food enjoyment, supporting the role of nonconscious evaluations in affective forecasting errors. In Study 2, we examined participants' facial expressions (another index of nonconscious evaluation) upon the presentation of food items, and we found that these nonverbal behaviors predicted affective misforecasts as well. In sum, although nonconscious evaluations are unavailable when anticipating the future, they may contribute to one's in-the-moment experiences and thus serve as blind spots in affective forecasting.
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Christopher Boyce & Alex Wood
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
Economics implicitly assumes that the marginal utility of income is independent of an individual's personality. We show that this is wrong. This is the first demonstration that there are strong personality-income interactions. In an analysis of 13615 individuals over 4-years we show that individuals who have high levels of conscientiousness obtain more satisfaction to their lives from increases to their household income. There are strong gender differences and women that are open-to-experiences, introverted or neurotic get lower satisfaction from household income increases. Our findings have important implications for the use of financial incentives to influence behavior. In the future, public policy may benefit from being personality-specific.
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Happiness is in our Nature: Exploring Nature Relatedness as a Contributor to Subjective Well-Being
Elizabeth Nisbet, John Zelenski & Steven Murphy
Journal of Happiness Studies, April 2011, Pages 303-322
Abstract:
Nature relatedness (NR) describes the affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects of human-nature relationships (Nisbet in Environ Behav 41: 715-740, 2009). Evidence from three studies suggests that individual differences in NR are associated with differences in well-being. In study 1 (N = 184), we explore associations between NR and a variety of well-being indicators, and use multiple regression analyses to demonstrate the unique relationship of NR with well-being, while controlling for other environmental measures. We replicate well-being correlates with a sample of business people (N = 145) in Study 2. In study 3 (N = 170), we explore the influence of environmental education on NR and well-being, and find that changes in NR mediate the relationship between environmental education and changes in vitality. We discuss the potential for interventions to improve psychological health and promote environmental behaviour.
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Luca Corazzini, Lucio Esposito & Francesca Majorano
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
Questionnaires exploring the relativist vs absolutist perception of wellbeing are administered to 3,883 students in eight different countries, four low-income countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Kenya and Laos, 1,924 respondents) and four high-income countries (Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, 1,959 respondents). Our data reveal that wellbeing is perceived mainly in relative terms with the strength of relativism being higher for respondents in high-income countries. However, when the satisfaction of some 'basic needs' is at stake the absolutist concern becomes powerful. Personal characteristics such as gender and background of studies have a significant role in determining respondents' perception of wellbeing. Finally, additional insights emerge from our study. Interpersonal comparisons take place by looking both 'upward' and 'downward' along the income scale, not only income ranking but also the magnitude of reference incomes plays a role and the perception of wellbeing is more elastic to absolute rather than relative income.