The Role of Positive and Negative Emotions in Life Satisfaction Judgment Across Nations

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Citation:

Kuppens, P., Realo, A., & Diener, E. (in press). The role of positive and negative emotions in life satisfaction judgment across nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

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Abstract:

This study examined how the frequency of positive and negative emotions is related to life satisfaction across nations. 8,557 participants from 46 countries reported on their life satisfaction and frequency of positive and negative emotions. Multilevel analyses showed that across nations, the experience of positive emotions was more strongly related to life satisfaction than the absence of negative emotions. Yet, the cultural dimensions of individualism and survival/self-expression moderated the relationship between positive and negative emotions and life-satisfaction judgments. The experience of negative emotions is more negatively related to life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic nations, and positive emotional experiences had a larger positive relationship with life satisfaction in nations that stress self-expression values than in nations that value survival. These findings are important in demonstrating how the good life in an emotional sense varies with national
culture, and how this depends on the values that characterize one’s society. Although positive and negative emotions might, to some degree, be universally viewed as desirable and undesirable, there appear to be clear cultural differences in how relevant such emotional experiences are to quality of life.

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