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Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living

Krys K 1 , Kostoula O 2 , van Tilburg WAP 3 , Mosca O 4 , Lee JH 5 , Maricchiolo F 6 Show all authors , Kosiarczyk A 7 , Kocimska-Bortnowska A 7 , Torres C 8 , Hitokoto H 9 , Liew K 10 , Bond MH 11 , Lun VM 12 , Vignoles VL 13 , Zelenski JM 14 , Haas BW 15 , Park J 16 , Vauclair CM 17 , Kwiatkowska A 1 , Roczniewska M 7 , Witoszek N 18 , Işık İ 19 , Kosakowska-Berezecka N 20 , Domínguez-Espinosa A 21 , Yeung JC 1 , Górski M 1 , Adamovic M 22 , Albert I 23 , Pavlopoulos V 24 , Fülöp M 25 , Sirlopu D 26 , Okvitawanli A 27 , Boer D 28 , Teyssier J 29 , Malyonova A 30 , Gavreliuc A 31 , Serdarevich U 32 , Akotia CS 33 , Appoh L 34 , Mira DMA 35 , Baltin A 36 , Denoux P 29 , Esteves CS 37 , Gamsakhurdia V 38 , Garðarsdóttir RB 39 , Igbokwe DO 40 , Igou ER 41 , Kascakova N 42 , Klůzová Kracˇmárová L 43 , Kronberger N 2 , Barrientos PE 44 , Mohoricć T 45 , Murdock E 23 , Mustaffa NF 46 , Nader M 47 , Nadi A 1 , van Osch Y 48 , Pavlović Z 49 , Polácˇková Šolcová I 43 , Rizwan M 50 , Romashov V 1 , Røysamb E 51 , Sargautyte R 52 , Schwarz B 53 , Selecká L 54 , Selim HA 55 , Stogianni M 56 , Sun CR 57 , Wojtczuk-Turek A 58 , Xing C 59 , Uchida Y 60

Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences
  • 2 Institute of Psychology, Johannes Kepler University Linz
  • 3 Department of Psychology, University of Essex
  • 4 Department of Education, Psychology, and Philosophy, University of Cagliari
  • 5 Department of Psychology, Indiana University Northwest
  • 6 Department of Education, University of Roma Tre
  • 7 SWPS University
  • 8 Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia
  • 9 Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University
  • 10 Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
  • 11 Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • 12 Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University
  • 13 School of Psychology, University of Sussex
  • 14 Department of Psychology, Carleton University
  • 15 Department of Psychology, University of Georgia
  • 16 Graduate School of Management, NUCB Business School
  • 17 Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS-Iscte), Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
  • 18 Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo
  • 19 Psychology Department, Bahçeşehir University
  • 20 Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk
  • 21 Department of Psychology, Iberoamerican University
  • 22 King's Business School, King's College London
  • 23 Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg
  • 24 Department of Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • 25 Institute of Psychology, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church
  • 26 Faculty of Psychology and Humanities, Universidad San Sebastián, Concepción
  • 27 Department of Psychology, Universitas Brawijaya
  • 28 Institute of Psychology, University of Koblenz
  • 29 Département Psychologie Clinique Du Sujet, Université Toulouse II
  • 30 Department of General and Social Psychology, Dostoevsky Omsk State University
  • 31 Department of Psychology, West University of Timisoara
  • 32 Universidad Nacional del Oeste
  • 33 Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Ghana
  • 34 Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, Nord University
  • 35 HULAB, San Salvador, El Salvador
  • 36 School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University
  • 37 Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Católica Lisbon Research Unit in Business and Economics
  • 38 Department of Psychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
  • 39 Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland
  • 40 Baze University Abuja
  • 41 Department of Psychology, University of Limerick
  • 42 Olomouc University Social Health Institute, Palacky University
  • 43 Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences
  • 44 Department of Psychology, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
  • 45 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka
  • 46 Department of Business Administration, International Islamic University Malaysia
  • 47 Department of Psychological Studies, Universidad ICESI
  • 48 Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University
  • 49 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade
  • 50 Department of Psychology, University of Haripur
  • 51 Department of Psychology, University of Oslo
  • 52 Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University
  • 53 Department of Applied Psychology, Zurich University of Applied Sciences
  • 54 University of St. Cyril and Methodius of Trnava
  • 55 King Saud University
  • 56 Department of Culture Studies, Tilburg University
  • 57 Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University
  • 58 Warsaw School of Economics
  • 59 Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China
  • 60 Institute for the Future of Human Society, Kyoto University
Perspect Psychol Sci, 2024 Feb 13.
PMID: 38350096 DOI: 10.1177/17456916231208367

Abstract

Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why "happiness maximization" might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat (i.e., faced relatively light existential pressures compared with other regions). We review the influence of the Gulf Stream on the Northwestern European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealize attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for happiness maximization, we also studied some of its potential side effects, namely alcohol and drug consumption and abuse and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we reanalyze data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction-the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology-involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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