Journal ArticleDOI
The religion paradox: if religion makes people happy, why are so many dropping out?
TLDR
It is found that religiosity is associated with slightly higher SWB, and similarly so across four major world religions, and the benefits of religion for social relationships and SWB depend on the characteristics of the society.Abstract:
As we estimate here, 68% of human beings--4.6 billion people--would say that religion is important in their daily lives. Past studies have found that the religious, on average, have higher subjective well-being (SWB). Yet, people are rapidly leaving organized religion in economically developed nations where religious freedom is high. Why would people leave religion if it enhances their happiness? After controlling for circumstances in both the United States and world samples, we found that religiosity is associated with slightly higher SWB, and similarly so across four major world religions. The associations of religiosity and SWB were mediated by social support, feeling respected, and purpose or meaning in life. However, there was an interaction underlying the general trend such that the association of religion and well-being is conditional on societal circumstances. Nations and states with more difficult life conditions (e.g., widespread hunger and low life expectancy) were much more likely to be highly religious. In these nations, religiosity was associated with greater social support, respect, purpose or meaning, and all three types of SWB. In societies with more favorable circumstances, religiosity is less prevalent and religious and nonreligious individuals experience similar levels of SWB. There was also a person-culture fit effect such that religious people had higher SWB in religious nations but not in nonreligious nations. Thus, it appears that the benefits of religion for social relationships and SWB depend on the characteristics of the society.read more
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Posted Content
World happiness report
TL;DR: The report, published by the Earth Institute and co-edited by the institute's director, Jeffrey Sachs, reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and absence of misery as criteria for government policy.
Posted Content
Theory and Validity of Life Satisfaction Scales
TL;DR: In this article, the reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of life satisfaction measures are reviewed, showing that the scales are stable under unchanging conditions, but are sensitive to changes in circumstances in people's lives.
Journal ArticleDOI
Theory and Validity of Life Satisfaction Scales
TL;DR: In this article, the reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of life satisfaction measures are reviewed, showing that the scales are stable under unchanging conditions, but are sensitive to changes in circumstances in people's lives.
Journal ArticleDOI
The relationship between nature connectedness and happiness: a meta-analysis
TL;DR: This meta-analysis shows that being connected to nature and feeling happy are, in fact, connected, and highlights the importance of considering personality when examining the psychological benefits of nature.
Journal ArticleDOI
Advances in subjective well-being research
TL;DR: Findings from psychology and economics on subjective well-being across cultures are synthesized and identified to identify outstanding questions, priorities for future research and pathways to policy implementation.
References
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Book
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
TL;DR: The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud in English as mentioned in this paper is the first full paperback publication of the standard edition of the complete psychological works in English, containing twenty-four volumes.
Book
The pattern of human concerns
TL;DR: The Pattern of human concerns as discussed by the authors, the pattern of human concern, is a pattern for human concerns and human concerns are related to the patterns of human interest in the world, e.g.
Journal ArticleDOI
High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being
Daniel Kahneman,Angus Deaton +1 more
TL;DR: It is concluded that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.
Book ChapterDOI
Cross-Cultural Correlates of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem
Ed Diener,Marissa L. Diener +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assessed whether cross-cultural variations in the strength of associations were related to societal dimensions including income and individualism, and found that life satisfaction and self-esteem were clearly discriminable constructs.