Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction in twenty-seven nations

Abstract

Adults from 27 different nations (total N=24,836) completed on-line surveys in English measuring orientations to the seeking of happiness (through pleasure, through engagement, and through meaning) and life satisfaction. Nations differed in their orientations and clustered into three interpretable groups in terms of them. One cluster was defined by relatively high endorsement of seeking pleasure and seeking engagement; the second cluster by relatively high endorsement of seeking engagement and seeking meaning; and the third cluster by relatively low endorsement of all three ways of seeking happiness. Across all nations, each of the three orientations predicted life satisfaction, although orientations to engagement and to meaning were more robustly associated with life satisfaction than was an orientation to pleasure, replicating and extending previous findings. Limitations and implications of the research were discussed