The end of happiness: temporal distance and judgments of life satisfaction in Sweden, Iran, Spain, and El Salvador

The aim was to investigate the effect of temporal distance on judgments of life satisfaction, which is a well-being construct strongly influenced by personality and based on memory of past events. Participants (N = 529) from Sweden, Iran, Spain, and El Salvador were randomly asked for judgments of life satisfaction in the present, the near-future (one week) or the distant-future (ten years). The main findings were that life satisfaction was judged higher in the present than in both the near and distant future, while no differences were found between near- and distant-future life satisfaction. The findings suggest an 'end of happiness' phenomenon, that is, we seem to believe that the present is the happiest moment of our lives.