Culture shapes whether the pursuit of happiness predicts higher or lower well-being.
Pursuing happiness can paradoxically impair well-being. Here, the authors propose the potential downsides to pursuing happiness may be specific to individualistic cultures. In collectivistic (vs. individualistic) cultures, pursuing happiness may be more successful because happiness is viewed--and thus pursued--in relatively socially engaged ways. In 4 geographical regions that vary in level of collectivism (United States, Germany, Russia, East Asia), we assessed participants' well-being, motivation to pursue happiness, and to what extent they pursued happiness in socially engaged ways. Motivation to pursue happiness predicted lower well-being in the United States, did not predict well-being in Germany, and predicted higher well-being in Russia and in East Asia. These cultural differences in the link between motivation to pursue happiness and well-being were explained by cultural differences in the socially engaged pursuit of happiness. These findings suggest that culture shapes whether the pursuit of happiness is linked with better or worse well-being, perhaps via how people pursue happiness.
Department of Psychology.
Brett Q
BQ
Ford
Department of Psychology, University of Denver.
Julia O
JO
Dmitrieva
School of Management, Tel Aviv University.
Daniel
D
Heller
Department of Psychology, Georgetown University.
Yulia
Y
Chentsova-Dutton
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo.
Igor
I
Grossmann
Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University.
Maya
M
Tamir
Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University.
Yukiko
Y
Uchida
Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University.
Birgit
B
Koopmann-Holm
Department of Psychology, Tufts University.
Victoria A
VA
Floerke
Department of Media Studies, University of Tübingen.
Meike
M
Uhrig
Department of Psychology, Tomsk State University.
Tatiana
T
Bokhan
Department of Psychology.
Iris B
IB
Mauss
D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000208:ethnology; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012426:Russia / Q000208:ethnology; D012945:Social Values; D013624:Taiwan / Q000208:ethnology; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult