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Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology

ISSN : 1229-0653

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Vol.34 No.4

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Belief in the distribution of happiness and subjective well-being

Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology / Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, (P)1229-0653;
2020, v.34 no.4, pp.37-61
https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2020.34.4.003



& (2020). Belief in the distribution of happiness and subjective well-being. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 34(4), 37-61, https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2020.34.4.003

Abstract

Lay theory is implicit assumptions about the social world that individuals hold, which influences personal experiences and behaviors. Previous research on the relationship between lay theories and happiness suggested various lay theories are associated with individual differences in experiencing happiness. In the present study, we investigated how the belief in the temporal and spatial distribution of happiness is related to individuals’ happiness. In Study 1, belief in happiness distribution was measured by self-reported survey and then correlated with participants’ self-reported feeling of happiness, In Study 2 and Study 3, participants performed behavioral tasks in which they predicted others’ levels of happiness on spatial and temporal dimensions. Participants’ beliefs on the happiness distribution were estimated based on their responses in the tasks and were correlated with subjective well-being measures. Results of Study 1-3 revealed that participants who believed happiness is not equally distributed across space and time tended to feel lower level of happiness and have lower life satisfaction. In Study 4, we found that belief in the economic distribution is not related to life satisfaction or other subjective well-being measures. Our findings suggest that belief in unequal distribution of happiness is negatively linked to individuals’ level of happiness and this relationship may not be domain-general but be specific to the domain of happiness.

keywords
subjective well-being, life satisfaction, lay theory, happiness distribution, 주관적 안녕감, 삶의 만족도, 내재 이론, 행복 분포

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