1. The economic well-being of nations is associated with positive daily situational experiences
- Author
-
Gwendolyn Gardiner, Daniel I. Lee, Erica Baranski, David C. Funder, Maite Beramendi, Brock Bastian, Aljoscha Neubauer, Diego Cortez, Eric Roth, Ana Torres, Daniela S. Zanini, Kristina Petkova, Jessica Tracy, Catherine Amiot, Mathieu Pelletier-Dumas, Roberto González, Ana Rosenbluth, Sergio Salgado, Yanjun Guan, Yu Yang, Diego Forero, Andrés Camargo, Emmanouil Papastefanakis, Georgios Kritsotakis, Eirini Spyridaki, Evangelia Fragkiadaki, Željko Jerneić, Martina Hřebíčková, Sylvie Graf, Pernille Strøbæk, Anu Realo, Maja Becker, Christelle Maisonneuve, Sofian El-Astal, Vladimer Lado Gamsakhurdia, John Rauthmann, Matthias Ziegler, Lars Penke, Emma E. Buchtel, Victoria Wai-Lan Yeung, Ágota Kun, Peter Gadanecz, Zoltán Vass, Máté Smohai, Anagha Lavalekar, Meta Zahro Aurelia, Dian Kinayung, Vanessa Gaffar, Gavin Sullivan, Christopher Day, Eyal Rechter, Marco Perugini, Giulio Costantini, Augusto Gnisci, Ida Sergi, Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Francesca Mottola, Tatsuya Sato, Yuki Nakata, Shizuka Kawamoto, Asuka Komiya, Marwan Al-Zoubi, Nicholas Owsley, Chaning Jang, Georgina Mburu, Irene Ngina, Girts Dimdins, Rasa Barkauskiene, Alfredas Laurinavicius, Marijana Markovikj, Eleonara Serafimovska, Khairul A. Mastor, Elliott Kruse, Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, Jaap Denissen, Marcel Van Aken, Ron Fischer, Ike E. Onyishi, Kalu T. Ogba, Siri Leknes, Vera Waldal Holen, Ingelin Hansen, Christian Krog Tamnes, Kaia Klæva, Rukhsana Kausar, Nashi Khan, Muhammad Rizwan, Agustín Espinosa, Maria Cecilia Gastardo-Conaco, Diwa Malaya A. Quiñones, Paweł Izdebski, Martyna Kotyśko, Piotr Szarota, Joana Henriques-Calado, Florin Alin Sava, Olya Lvova, Victoria Pogrebitskaya, Mikhail Allakhverdov, Sergey Manichev, Oumar Barry, Snežana Smederevac, Petar Čolović, Dušanka Mitrović, Milan Oljača, Ryan Hong, Peter Halama, Janek Musek, Francois De Kock, Gyuseog Han, Eunkook M. Suh, Soyeon Choi, David Gallardo-Pujol, Luis Oceja, Sergio Villar, Zoltan Kekecs, Nils Arlinghaus, Daniel P. Johnson, Alice Kathryn O'Donnell, Clara Kulich, Fabio Lorenzi-Cioldi, Janina Larissa Bühler, Mathias Allemand, Yen-Ping Chang, Wei-fang Lin, Watcharaporn Boonyasiriwat, S. Adil Saribay, Oya Somer, Pelin Karakus Akalin, Peter Kakubeire Baguma, Alexander Vinogradov, Larisa Zhuravlova, Mark Conner, Jason Rentfrow, Alexa Tullett, Kyle Sauerberger, Douglas E. Colman, Joey T. Cheng, Eric Stocks, and Huyen Thi Thu Bui
- Subjects
Positive psychology ,Ecological psychology ,Economic development ,Situational assessment ,Socioeconomic status ,Culture ,Psychology ,BF1-990 - Abstract
People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to describe a situation they experienced the previous day using the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). Using expert ratings, the overall positivity of each situation was calculated for both nations and individuals. The positivity of the average situation in each nation was strongly related to the economic development of the nation as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). For individuals’ daily experiences, the economic status of their nation also predicted the positivity of their experience, even more than their family socioeconomic status. Further analyses revealed the specific characteristics of the average situations for higher HDI nations that make their experiences more positive. Higher HDI was associated with situational experiences involving humor, socializing with others, and the potential to express emotions and fantasies. Lower HDI was associated with an increase in the presence of threats, blame, and hostility, as well as situational experiences consisting of family, religion, and money. Despite the increase in a few negative situational characteristics in lower HDI countries, the overall average experience still ranged from neutral to slightly positive, rather than negative, suggesting that greater HDI may not necessarily increase positive experiences but rather decrease negative experiences. The results illustrate how national economic status influences the lives of individuals even within a single instance of daily life, with large and powerful consequences when accumulated across individuals within each nation.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF