Culture and happiness: the influence of individualism

Abstract

Culture is an important factor affecting happiness. This paper researches the relation between individualism and happiness and researches both the direct and indirect effects of individualism on happiness. Theory suggests that there is a positive relation between individualism and happiness and that there are two indirect channels, which are income and tightness. This paper mainly uses panel data at country level, based on all six world values survey waves, to analyze the effects of individualism. To analyze the direct effect, a random effects model is used. For the indirect effects, sem analyses are used that can separate the direct and indirect effects. This paper could not find a relation between individualism and happiness. The results are robust with the exception of the income channel, which had ambiguous findings. Based on the research done in this paper we can conclude that this paper does not support evidence that points to a relation between individualism and happiness.