The (Un) Desirability of Happiness: Pathogen Threats Predict Differences in the Value of Happiness

• Main Author: KOH, Sharon Li Hua
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2014
• Subjects: Emotion; culture; pathogen threats; happiness; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/120; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=etd_coll
• Institution: Singapore Management University

People in some parts of the world find positive emotions more desirable than others. What accounts for this variability? We predicted that happiness would be valued less under conditions where the behaviors that happiness promotes would be less beneficial. We analyzed international survey data and United Nations voting records and found that happiness was valued relatively less in environments that had been historically pathogen-rich. Using a series of experimental studies, we showed that people who were experimentally primed by the threat of pathogens judged happiness in others less favorably and found happiness less appropriate. Our findings contribute to research on the function of positive emotions by providing insight into the boundary conditions under which happiness is deemed desirable.