Happiness around the world: A combined etic-emic approach across 63 countries

Abstract

What does it mean to be happy? The vast majority of cross-cultural studies on happiness have employed a Western-origin, or "WEIRD" measure of happiness that conceptualizes it as a self-centered (or "independent"), high-arousal emotion. However, research from Eastern cultures, particularly Japan, conceptualizes happiness as including an interpersonal aspect emphasizing harmony and connectedness to others. Following a combined emic-etic approach (Cheung, van de Vijver & Leong, 2011), we assessed the cross-cultural applicability of a measure of independent happiness developed in the US (Subjective Happiness Scale; Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) and a measure of interdependent happiness developed in Japan (Interdependent Happiness Scale; Hitokoto & Uchida, 2015), with data from 63 countries representing 7 sociocultural regions. Results indicate that the schema of independent happiness was more coherent in more WEIRD countries. In contrast, the coherence of interdependent happiness was unrelated to a country's "WEIRD-ness." Reliabilities of both happiness measures were lowest in African and Middle Eastern countries, suggesting these two conceptualizations of happiness may not be globally comprehensive. Overall, while the two measures had many similar correlates and properties, the self-focused concept of independent happiness is "WEIRD-er" than interdependent happiness, suggesting cross-cultural researchers should attend to both conceptualizations.

Fig 1. SEM model displaying the correlation between the happiness latent variables.

Note. IHS = Interdependent Happiness Scale. SHS = Subjective Happiness Scale. Model fit statistics: RMSEA = .06, CFI = .98, R² = .63. Estimate between SHS and IHS: β = .79, b = .31, z = 72.99, p < .001. IHS.1 was an average of the first 3 items on the IHS, IHS.2 was an average of the next 3 items on the IHS, and IHS.3 was an average of the last 3 items on the IHS.

Fig 2. Country level correlations between objective country level variables and happiness variable reliabilities.

Note. IHS = Interdependent Happiness Scale, SHS = Subjective Happiness Scale, ωt = total common variance, ωh = general factor saturation, β = smallest split half reliability, h2 = average communality score, HDI = Human Development Index, PopDensity = population density, GrowthRate = population growth rate, SuicideRate = suicide rate, AvgTemp = average daily temperature.

Fig 3. Country level correlations between subjective country level variables and happiness variable reliabilities.

Note. IHS = Interdependent Happiness Scale, SHS = Subjective Happiness Scale, ωt = total common variance, ωh = general factor saturation, β = smallest split half reliability, h2 = average communality score. WEIRD scores originally from Muthukrishna et al. [37], values scores originally from Schwartz [38].