Lou, Xiaobin and Haas, BW and Zelenski, JM and Xing, C and Vignoles, VL and Vauclair, C-M and Van Tilburg, WAP and Uchida, Yukiko and Teyssier, Julien and Torres, Claudio and Sun, C-R and Stoyanova, S and Stogianni, M and Šolcová, IP and Sirlopú, D and Serdarevich, U and Selim, HA and Sargautyte, R and Røysamb, E and Romashov, V and Rizwan, M and Pavlović, Z and Pavlopoulos, V and Park, J and Van Osch, Y and Okvitawanli, A and Nadi, A and Nader, M and Mustaffa, NF and Murdock, E and Mosca, O and Mohorić, T and Marroquin, PEB and Maricchiolo, F and Malyonova, A and Łużniak-Piecha, M and Lun, VM-C and Liu, X and Li, LMW and Lee, JH and Kwiatkowska, A and Kronberger, N and Kostoula, O and Kosiarczyk, A and Kocimska-Zych, Agata and Kračmárová, LK and Kascakova, N and Işık, I and Igou, ER and Igbokwe, DO and Boer, D and Gavreliuc, A and Garðarsdóttir, RB and Gamsakhurdia, V and Fülöp, M and Esteves, CS and Domínguez-Espinosa, A and Denoux, P and Bond, MH and Baltin, A and Arevalo, D and Appoh, L and Albert, I and Akotia, CS and Adamovic, M and Krys, K (2025) A cross-cultural study on the association between societal conditions and the idealization of happiness. Applied Research in Quality of Life. (In Press)
Lou, Xiaobin and Haas, BW and Zelenski, JM and Xing, C and Vignoles, VL and Vauclair, C-M and Van Tilburg, WAP and Uchida, Yukiko and Teyssier, Julien and Torres, Claudio and Sun, C-R and Stoyanova, S and Stogianni, M and Šolcová, IP and Sirlopú, D and Serdarevich, U and Selim, HA and Sargautyte, R and Røysamb, E and Romashov, V and Rizwan, M and Pavlović, Z and Pavlopoulos, V and Park, J and Van Osch, Y and Okvitawanli, A and Nadi, A and Nader, M and Mustaffa, NF and Murdock, E and Mosca, O and Mohorić, T and Marroquin, PEB and Maricchiolo, F and Malyonova, A and Łużniak-Piecha, M and Lun, VM-C and Liu, X and Li, LMW and Lee, JH and Kwiatkowska, A and Kronberger, N and Kostoula, O and Kosiarczyk, A and Kocimska-Zych, Agata and Kračmárová, LK and Kascakova, N and Işık, I and Igou, ER and Igbokwe, DO and Boer, D and Gavreliuc, A and Garðarsdóttir, RB and Gamsakhurdia, V and Fülöp, M and Esteves, CS and Domínguez-Espinosa, A and Denoux, P and Bond, MH and Baltin, A and Arevalo, D and Appoh, L and Albert, I and Akotia, CS and Adamovic, M and Krys, K (2025) A cross-cultural study on the association between societal conditions and the idealization of happiness. Applied Research in Quality of Life. (In Press)
Lou, Xiaobin and Haas, BW and Zelenski, JM and Xing, C and Vignoles, VL and Vauclair, C-M and Van Tilburg, WAP and Uchida, Yukiko and Teyssier, Julien and Torres, Claudio and Sun, C-R and Stoyanova, S and Stogianni, M and Šolcová, IP and Sirlopú, D and Serdarevich, U and Selim, HA and Sargautyte, R and Røysamb, E and Romashov, V and Rizwan, M and Pavlović, Z and Pavlopoulos, V and Park, J and Van Osch, Y and Okvitawanli, A and Nadi, A and Nader, M and Mustaffa, NF and Murdock, E and Mosca, O and Mohorić, T and Marroquin, PEB and Maricchiolo, F and Malyonova, A and Łużniak-Piecha, M and Lun, VM-C and Liu, X and Li, LMW and Lee, JH and Kwiatkowska, A and Kronberger, N and Kostoula, O and Kosiarczyk, A and Kocimska-Zych, Agata and Kračmárová, LK and Kascakova, N and Işık, I and Igou, ER and Igbokwe, DO and Boer, D and Gavreliuc, A and Garðarsdóttir, RB and Gamsakhurdia, V and Fülöp, M and Esteves, CS and Domínguez-Espinosa, A and Denoux, P and Bond, MH and Baltin, A and Arevalo, D and Appoh, L and Albert, I and Akotia, CS and Adamovic, M and Krys, K (2025) A cross-cultural study on the association between societal conditions and the idealization of happiness. Applied Research in Quality of Life. (In Press)
Abstract
Although most people aspire to be happy, the extent to which people pursue or idealize experiencing high levels of happiness does differ according to sociocultural context. This study was designed to elucidate which societal and cultural indicators are the most conducive to fostering high levels of happiness idealization. To accomplish this goal, we measured levels of happiness idealization for 11,170 participants residing in 43 different countries. We utilized machine learning (random forests approach) to examine how well an array of 18 different societal and cultural-level indicators were associated with country-level happiness idealization. We found robust and consistent evidence that greater cultural religiosity was associated with reduced idealization of happiness across four different types of happiness, including life satisfaction and interdependent happiness. These findings demonstrated that how much happiness is pursued varies considerably according to sociocultural context and highlights the role of cultural religiosity in shaping how people think about high levels of happiness.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Happiness idealization; Satisfaction with Life; Interdependent Happiness; Family Happiness; Religiosity; Random Forests |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Psychology, Department of |
| SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Date Deposited: | 08 May 2025 09:37 |
| Last Modified: | 08 May 2025 09:38 |
| URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/40817 |
Available files
Filename: Accepted Manuscript.pdf
Embargo Date: 1 January 2100