Cultural values and changes in happiness in 78 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of data from the World Happiness Reports.

The concept of happiness is consistent across cultures to a significant extent, and encompasses both internal (subjective) and external (situational) aspects. Cultural values and norms shape emotions and behavior from an early age, and hence play a key role in influencing cross-national variations in happiness. Cross-national variations in culture can thus play a key role in influencing the relationship between adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and happiness. The current study examines the relationship between the six dimensions of culture, defined by Hofstede and his colleagues, and subjective ratings of happiness in 78 countries, obtained before (2017-19) and during (2020-21) the COVID-19 pandemic, based on data from the most recent World Happiness reports. The key results were: (a) countries were as likely to experience an increase as a decrease in self-reported happiness during this period; (b) distinct domains of culture were significantly correlated with happiness at each time point, though there was a certain degree of overlap; (c) pre-pandemic levels of happiness were negatively associated with changes in happiness during the pandemic; and (d) among cultural dimensions, long-term orientation was positively associated with changes in subjective happiness, while indulgence was negatively associated with this variable. Certain cultural values may play an important part in fostering a path to well-being in the face of stressful or traumatic circumstances. This path may be similar to the concept of mature happiness, derived from existential philosophy, which is characterized by achieving a balance between the positive and negative aspects of one's life.

Roles of Indulgence versus Restraint Culture and Ability to Savor the Moment in the Link between Income and Subjective Well-Being.

Over the past few decades, various academic fields have reported contradictory findings regarding whether income is positively or negatively associated with subjective well-being (SWB). To reconcile the inconclusive observations, researchers tend to use various mediators and moderators that could explain why income is more strongly associated with SWB for certain groups of people and why income could be negatively associated with SWB for other groups. This study endeavored to first test additional mediation roles of financial satisfaction and a sense of control in the link between income and three related yet distinct measures of SWB: life satisfaction, happiness, and emotional well-being (EWB), at both cross-national and individual levels. We further investigated the direct and moderating impacts of national difference in Indulgence versus Restraint (IVR) cultural orientations over two mediating mechanisms (income → financial satisfaction → SWB; income → a sense of control → SWB) using data from 49,097 participants in the 2017-2020 World Values Survey. Additionally, we conducted a moderated mediation analysis of individual difference in ability to savor the moment (ASM) for these two mediating mechanisms based on surveys with 796 respondents from China. Analyses at both national level and individual level confirmed the partial mediating roles of financial satisfaction and a sense of control. We further find a positive, direct impact of IVR on SWB such that people in more indulgence cultures report a higher SWB than those in more restraint cultures. The mediating effects of financial satisfaction were found to be weaker in more indulgence cultures than in more restraint ones, while the mediating effects of a sense of control remain the same. Finally, we find that individuals' ASM does not only directly lead to a higher SWB, but also amplifies the mediation impact of financial satisfaction in the link between income and life satisfaction and in the link between income and EWB. Implications of these findings are offered for public policy makers, employers, and citizens, as well as researchers from different fields.

Indulgence and Long Term Orientation Influence Prosocial Behavior at National Level.

The relationships between several Hofstede's cultural dimensions and prosocial behavior at national level have been investigated by some studies. Yet the roles of indulgence versus restraint (IVR) and long-term versus short-term orientation (LTO), two newly established cultural dimensions, have received insufficient interest. This study aimed to investigate whether the World Giving Index (WGI), a national level measure of prosocial behavior (including donating, volunteering, and helping a stranger) provided by Gallup, was affected by IVR and LTO. The results suggested a positive link between IVR and WGI, and a negative link between LTO and helping a stranger. Culture values can in a great extend account for why prosocial behavior varies across countries. Further analysis revealed interactions among IVR, LTO, and individualism versus collectivism (IND). Simple slope analyses found that: (1) a higher level of IND could enhance the positive influence of IVR on prosocial behavior; (2) a lower level of IND could weaken the negative impact of LTO on prosocial behavior; (3) a higher level of IVR could weaken the negative effect of LTO on prosocial behavior.