Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living

Abstract

Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why "happiness maximization" might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat (i.e., faced relatively light existential pressures compared with other regions). We review the influence of the Gulf Stream on the Northwestern European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealize attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for happiness maximization, we also studied some of its potential side effects, namely alcohol and drug consumption and abuse and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we reanalyze data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction-the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology-involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level.

Keywords: culture; happiness; life satisfaction; society; subjective well-being.

Fig. 1.

Narrow and broad models of subjective well-being. The narrow model (left) features subjective well-being and happiness synonymously and as superordinate to other components of subjective well-being. The broader model (right) proposes an interdependent network of various components of subjective well-being, with happiness being one of its several components.

Fig. 2.

Northwestern European eco-environmental habitats are benign compared with those of other regions. Box plots for (a) the cool-water index (convenient temperature, rainfall continuity, and the abundance of ice-free waterways), (b) pathogen safety, (c) natural-disaster security, and (d) idealization of happiness are arranged in descending order of mean scores. Lines in the middle indicate the median level, boxes indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles, whiskers indicate the minimum and maximum values of the data within the range extending 1.5 times the height of the box, and circles and asterisks are outliers (values that do not fall within whiskers; asterisks are from the box at least three times away from the height of the box). Northwestern Europeans idealize happiness most (despite being low on extreme responding). ACNU = Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States; MENA = Middle East and North Africa.

Fig. 3.

The cultural syndrome of WEIRDness mediates the association between benign eco-environmental conditions and happiness maximization. WEIRD = Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic.

Fig. 4.

Global flow of currents. The Gulf Stream (Norwegian Current) is an exception on a planetary scale and makes the European habitat exceptionally benign for human habitation.

Fig. 5.

Ideal level of happiness across cultures. Using a more articulated theoretical rationale and the data from 19,986 participants from 66 countries, the current article aims to show that the idealization of high levels of happiness is shaped, among other factors, by cultural context and that the ideal of “happiness maximization” emerged particularly in Northwestern European cultures. We further propose that the idealization of high levels of happiness may have evolved in cultures that emerged in the most benign eco-environmental habitats (i.e., those that have faced the smallest existential pressures). Northwestern Europe has the most benign eco-environmental conditions of all large macrogeographical regions of our planet, and, drawing from geographical science, we indicate the probable role of the Gulf Stream in creating them. The red dashed line illustrates “very happy,” the line in the middle indicates the median level, boxes indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles, whiskers extend to 1.5 times the height of the box, and circles and asterisks are outliers (values that do not fall within whiskers; asterisks are from the box at least three times away the height of the box). Source data are from Krys et al. (2023), Krys, Park, et al. (2021), and Krys, Yeung, et al. (2022).