Diener, E. (2009). The science of well-being: The collected works of Ed these raise.
e raise. Worldwide predictors of SWB such as social support
Diener (Social Indicators Research Series, Vol. 37). Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Springer.
Diener, E. (2009). Culture and well-being: The collected works of Ed
Diener (Social Indicators Research Series, Vol. 38). Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Springer.
Diener, E. (2009). Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener
(Social Indicators Research Series, Vol. 39). Dordrecht, The Netherlands,
Springer.
Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2008). Happiness: Unlocking the myster-
ies of psychological wealth. Malden, MA: Wiley/Blackwell.
Diener, E., Diener, M., & Diener, C. (1995). Factors predicting the subjec-
tive well-being of nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
69, 851– 864. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.851
Diener, E., & Eid, M. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of multimethod measurement
in psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Diener, E., Kahneman, D., Tov, W., & Arora, R. (2010). Income’s associ-
ation with judgments of life versus feelings. In E. Diener, J. Helliwell, &
D. Kahneman (Eds.), International differences in well-being (pp. 3–15).
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
9780199732739.003.0001
Diener, E., Lucas, R., Schimmack, U., & Helliwell, J. (2009). Well-being for
public policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195334074.001.0001
Diener, E., Lucas, R., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic
treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psy-
chologist, 61, 305–314. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.4.305
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an
economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5,
1–31. doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.00501001.x
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (Eds.). (2000). Culture and subjective well-being.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. E. (1999). Subjective
well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276 –
302. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.276
Diener, E., Tay, L., & Myers, D. (2011). The religion paradox: If religion
makes people happy, why are so many dropping out? Journal of Person-
ality and Social Psychology, 101, 1278 –1290. doi:10.1037/a0024402
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D. W., Oishi, S., &
Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to
assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators
Research, 97, 143–156. doi:10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y
Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). (1999). Well-being: The
foundations of hedonic psychology. New York, NY: Sage.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent
positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin,
131, 803– 855. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (2008). The Satisfaction With Life Scale and the
emerging construct of life satisfaction. Journal of Positive Psychology, 3,
137–152. doi:10.1080/17439760701756946
Tov, W., & Diener, E. (2007). Culture and subjective well-being. In S.
Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp.
691–713). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
New Findings and Future Directions for
Subjective Well-Being Research
Ed Diener
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and The
Gallup Organization, Omaha, Nebraska
DOI: 10.1037/a0029541
Recent findings on subjective well-being (SWB) are presented,
and I describe the important questions for future research that
590
and fulfillment of basic needs have been uncovered, and there
are large differences in SWB between societies. A number of
culture-specific predictors of SWB have also been found. Re-
search on social comparison suggests that a world standard for
a desirable income has developed. New findings on adaptation
indicate that habituation to conditions is not always complete
and that circumstances in some cases can have a large and
lasting effect on SWB. An important finding is that high SWB
benefits health, longevity, citizenship, and social relationships.
Because of the benefits of SWB as well as the strong effects
societal conditions can have on it, I proposed national accounts
of SWB, which are now being seriously considered by nations.
Finally, I review advances in methodology that are needed to
move beyond conclusions based on simple cross-sectional cor-
relations based on global self-report scales. Each of the findings
raises new and important questions for future research.
Subjective well-being (SWB) represents people’s evaluations
of their lives, both in terms of cognitions (e.g., “My life is
satisfying”) and feelings (e.g., “My experiences are pleasant
and rewarding”). SWB represents people’s beliefs and feel-
ings about whether they are leading a desirable and rewarding
life. Three decades ago (Diener, 1984) I reviewed the field of
SWB, and in 1999 I published an updated review that de-
scribed the advances since the time of Wilson’s 1967 review
(Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). In this article I describe
new discoveries that refine our understanding of SWB, and I
list important issues that these findings raise for future re-
search. My hope is that investigators will embrace the new
developments that are emerging by advancing research in
these areas.
Universal Versus Culture-Specific
Causes of Subjective Well-Being
Early studies of SWB were conducted in wealthier, Westernized
nations. Thus, there was little knowledge of whether SWB
findings generalized across cultures. With the advent of large
international studies such as the World Values Survey and the
Gallup World Poll, there are now large and representative sam-
Editor’s Note. Ed Diener received the Award for Distinguished Scientific
Contributions. Award winners are invited to deliver an award address at the
APA’s annual convention. This article is based on the award address
presented at the 120th annual meeting, held August 2–5, 2012, in Orlando,
Florida. Articles based on award addresses are reviewed, but they differ
from unsolicited articles in that they are expressions of the winners’ reflec-
tions on their work and their views of the field.
Author’s Note. My sincere gratitude is expressed to Maike Luhmann,
Shige Oishi, Richard Lucas, Ulrich Schimmack, and Michael Eid for their
suggestions on this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toEd Die-
ner, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Cham-
paign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820. E-mail:
ediener@illinois.edu
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
 ples from diverse nations. Certain predictors of SWB do gener-
alize across cultures. For example, feelings of social support,
trust, and mastery predict individual SWB in all areas of the
world. Personality, as well as the fulfillment of basic needs, also
predicts SWB across the globe.
Mean-Level Differences Between Societies
Many of the large differences in SWB between countries can
be explained by variations in conditions such as adequate
food, health, lack of corruption, and so forth. There is evi-
dence, however, that some cultural regions tend to be happier
than others, even when one controls for conditions such as
income. For example, Latin American nations tend to report
higher SWB than the nations of East Asia when material
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
conditions are controlled. Some explanations for this include
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
cultural standards for feeling and expressing positive emo-
tions (Eid & Diener, 2001), differences in social support
(Oishi & Schimmack, 2010), and differences in positivity
(Diener, Scollon, Oishi, Dzokoto, & Suh, 2000). Societal
circumstances can be associated with very large differences
in SWB, which are due both to objective circumstances and
to other cultural factors.
Predictors of Well-Being Across Cultures
There are some differences between cultures in the predictors of
SWB, and these often fit the pattern of culture–person congru-
ence (for reviews, see Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003; Tov &
Diener, 2007; Oishi, 2012). To the extent that people have the
characteristics that are valued in their culture, they tend to be
happier. Because some characteristics are valued in some cul-
tures more than in others, there are differences in what predicts
happiness in societies. For instance, Diener and Diener (1995)
found that self-esteem was a stronger predictor of life satisfac-
tion in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures. Suh
(2002) found that a consistent personality is valued more in the
West than in South Korea, and hence consistency was more
predictive of SWB in the West. Fulmer et al. (2010) found that
extraverts tend to be happier in extraverted cultures than in
introverted cultures.
Suh, Diener, and Updegraff (2008) found that a person’s
moods and emotions were more predictive of life satisfaction
in an individualistic culture, whereas one’s social life was
more predictive of life satisfaction in a collectivistic culture.
Recently, Diener, Tay, and Myers (2011) found that in very
religious nations and states of the United States, religious
people have higher life satisfaction than nonreligious people,
whereas in the least religious nations and states this differ-
ence disappears. Thus, whether religion is associated with
SWB depends on the society.
The findings that there are both universal and society-
specific predictors of SWB raise intriguing questions for
future research: What are the universal predictors of SWB
and why do they have effects across all societies? Are the
universals more inherently evaluable (Hsee & Zhang, 2010)
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
and thus less subject to shifting standards? Why are some
cultures happier? What is the explanation for the culture–
person fit findings?
Standards Used for Life Evaluations
Social Comparison
One important influence on how people evaluate the condi-
tions of their lives, beyond circumstances and personality, is
the judgment standards they use. People might use their
desires as a standard for evaluating their lives. For instance,
people’s income aspirations can outstrip their rising incomes
so that even successful individuals can feel dissatisfied (e.g.,
Graham & Pettinato, 2006). Individuals might also use social
comparison, judging their life circumstances on the basis of
how other people are doing. Findings from my laboratory and
those of others suggests that social comparison effects on
SWB do not fully follow from the theory proposed by Fest-
inger (1954), which stated that individuals compare them-
selves to those who are similar and proximal to them. On the
basis of the original theory, people ought to be more satisfied
with their incomes and lives if they are better off materially
than their neighbors and co-workers, and less satisfied if they
fall below this standard. Findings reveal, however, that ma-
terial standards now extend across the nations of the world.
Festinger (1954) constructed the theory of social compar-
ison before television became ubiquitous. Now 84% of
households worldwide own a television (based on the Gallup
World Poll). Many television programs aired around the
world are produced in Western nations and portray prosper-
ous lifestyles in these countries. The Internet and print media
provide information about material comforts in the most
economically developed nations. Thus, people may know as
much about the material lives of individuals in wealthy
nations, as portrayed in the media, as they do about their
neighbors. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that people now
judge their own incomes in reference to a world standard.
In support of a worldwide standard for income, nations
line up well in life satisfaction based on their average
incomes. Figure 1 shows the strong relation between in-
come and life satisfaction among the nations of the world,
indicating that national wealth is a major predictor of the
average SWB in them. When people’s incomes were stan-
dardized by their age and occupation within their nations,
these predictors reflecting people’s local standing on in-
come added only a small increment in predicting their life
satisfaction beyond people’s absolute incomes (Diener,
Tay, & Oishi, 2012). Furthermore, the slopes of income
and life satisfaction within nations are not as steep as the
slope of mean income and mean life satisfaction across
nations, thus contradicting the idea that local social com-
parisons are primary.
Becchetti, Castriota, and Giachin (2011) found that life
satisfaction depends on the distance between people’s
income and that in the richest nations. People’s satisfac-
591

Figure 1
Income and Life Satisfaction in Nations
8
Life Satisfaction (0 to 10 Ladder)
Correlation = .82
7 period of years, a significant number of individuals do change
6
5 been in these conditions for many decades remain quite
4
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
3
2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
Household Dollar Income (Log 10 units)
Note. N ⫽ 677,145 respondents in 154 nations. Life satisfaction is based on
Cantril’s (1965) Self-Anchoring Ladder scale.
tion can decline even as their incomes rise if they fall
behind income growth in the wealthiest nations. Thus,
although people may to some extent compare themselves
to their neighbors and co-workers in judging their income,
a world standard based on wealthy nations is now the
primary basis of evaluation. A troubling implication of this
is that there is a treadmill effect in which people’s view of
the good life continues to climb as incomes and spending
in the wealthiest nations climb.
A few research questions raised by the social comparison
findings are as follows: When does rising income lead to
rising SWB, and when does it not? How do we ensure that
rising income is rewarding regardless of the income levels of
the wealthiest? Do people now use worldwide standards for
other areas of life such as education, human and democratic
rights, and housing?
Adaptation
The idea of adaptation to conditions prevailed in the field of
SWB for many decades. Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bul-
man (1978) proposed that people react strongly to good and
bad events, with higher and lower SWB, respectively, but
then quickly adapt back to their original baseline levels. This
meant that in the long run, even extreme conditions such as
paraplegia or extreme poverty would have negligible influ-
ences on a person’s SWB. However, recent longitudinal
findings suggest that adaptation to conditions is more intri-
cate (Diener, Lucas, & Scollon, 2006) and that circumstances
can have a large impact on SWB. It may take many years for
adaptation to occur, and sometimes adaptation is not com-
plete.
592
Although people on average often adapt to marriage so
that it no longer makes them happier or unhappier than
before, they do not fully adapt to some conditions such as
unemployment (Clark, Diener, Georgellis, & Lucas, 2008) or
severe disabilities (Lucas, 2007). We also know that over a
substantially in their levels of life satisfaction (Fujita &
Diener, 2005). The income and SWB relation shown in
Figure 1 also suggests incomplete adaptation to circum-
stances, because people in rich and poor nations who have
dissimilar in their levels of SWB.
The adaptation pattern for an individual can be revealing.
I present in Figure 2 the momentary mood data of “Harry,” a
participant in an experience-sampling study. “Harry” re-
5.0
corded his moods at random moments twice a day for six
weeks during a period in which he was receiving chemother-
apy for cancer. He was informed during the study that his
cancer was in remission. The horizontal line in the figure
represents a neutral mood. Above the line are positive moods,
ranging from mild happiness to elation, and below the line
are negative moods. As can be seen, “Harry” had a “high” in
his moods following the good news of remission but then
returned back toward his original mood level. The figure also
shows, however, that his average moods after remission were
higher than his average moods before (a mean change of 0.77
standard deviation units). Thus, “Harry’s” feelings reveal
some adaptation but not complete long-term habituation to
circumstances.
A number of intriguing research questions are raised by
the findings that people adapt to events but not always com-
pletely: When and how do people adapt to circumstances?
When do they not fully adapt, and why? Can we speed
adaptation to unavoidable bad conditions and slow adaptation
to good conditions? Are there different rates of adaptation
depending on factors such as personality and social support?
Figure 2
“Harry’s” Moods Over Six Weeks
6
Cancer Remission
Average Daily Moods
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Day Number
Note. Possible moods vary from 6 (extremely positive) to ⫺6 (extremely
negative).
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
 Why do people often adapt more quickly for feelings than for
life satisfaction (Luhmann, Hofman, Eid, & Lucas, 2012)?
Outcomes of Subjective Well-Being
An intriguing recent finding is that SWB is not only a
desirable outcome but can also be an important predictor of
future life outcomes. A review by Lyubomirsky, King, and
Diener (2005) concluded that high SWB is predictive of
future health and the quality of people’s social life. Diener
and Chan (2011) found that the evidence that high SWB
benefits health and longevity is “clear and compelling” (see
also Chida & Steptoe, 2008).
High SWB seems to foster success in the workplace.
Cheerfulness while in college was found to predict later
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
income (Diener, Nickerson, Lucas, & Sandvik, 2002). There
is evidence linking certain forms of SWB, for example, job
satisfaction, to organizational citizenship (e.g., Brief & Mo-
towidlo, 1986). In a large meta-analysis, Oishi (2012) found
that “happy” workers are more productive. In a large study of
thousands of work units, Harter, Schmidt, Asplund, and Kil-
ham (2010) found that job satisfaction prospectively pre-
dicted the performance of work units. Oswald, Proto, and
Sgroi (2012) found in both a laboratory experimental study
and in a naturalistic study that positive moods benefited
productivity on a speeded task but did not affect the quality
of work. Edmans (2012) found that stock price returns were
predicted by earlier job satisfaction in companies. These
findings are compelling because they rule out reverse causal-
ity from good performance to job satisfaction, and they take
into account the numerous channels such as customer satis-
faction and employee turnover through which employee
SWB might influence organizational performance.
Recent research ties SWB to desirable social behavior and
good citizenship behavior in the community. For example,
Aknin, Sandstrom, Dunn, and Norton (2011) found that in
122 of 136 nations, life satisfaction was associated with
donating more money to charity. Priller and Schupp (2011)
found that people who were happy during the past month,
who felt high in positive feelings and low in negative feel-
ings, were more likely to donate blood and donate money to
charity, even after controlling for income, education, and
employment. Shin et al. (2011) found that positive affect in
children was associated with peer acceptance, teacher-rated
adjustment, and initiating positive interaction with peers.
Boehm and Lyubomirsky (2008) reviewed evidence that
happy people tend to be more popular and likable.
The correlates of high SWB are broad, including biolog-
ical factors such as fertility and survival of healthy offspring.
These findings led Diener, Oishi, and Suh (2012) to argue
that humans have been evolutionarily selected for positive
levels of happiness. Although researchers analyze the corre-
lates of differences in happiness, it is noteworthy that most
people are above neutral in their moods and emotions (Diener
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
& Diener, 1996), which is consistent with the idea that
positive feelings are frequently beneficial.
Despite the benefits found for high SWB, conclusions
about its desirability must be qualified in a number of ways
(Diener, Oishi, & Suh, 2012). For example, although high
cheerfulness upon entering college predicted income 19 years
later, this effect was strongest among those coming from
high-income families and did not occur for college students
from the poorest families (Diener et al., 2002). Furthermore,
the most cheerful college students rated their academic abil-
ities highly but obtained slightly lower grades while in col-
lege (Nickerson, Diener, & Schwarz, 2011). These findings
raise the question of in what circumstances SWB is benefi-
cial.
Not only are there issues about when SWB is beneficial,
there are also questions about whether there is an optimal
level for effective functioning. Diener and Biswas-Diener
(2008) argued that people without negative emotions can be
deviant and debilitated and that people with positive emo-
tions that are too intense and continuous can also suffer. In
support of this line of reasoning, Oishi, Diener, and Lucas
(2007) found that the highest levels of SWB were optimal for
social functioning, as measured by the stability of romantic
relationships, but for the most effective functioning in
achievement domains, as measured by school grades and
income, being happy, but not extremely happy, was most
advantageous. George and Zhou (2007) found that positive
mood was predictive of employee creativity but that creativ-
ity was highest when some negative affect was also present.
Gruber, Mauss, and Tamir (2011) argued that there might
be a wrong time for happiness, a wrong amount of it for the
occasion, and wrong ways of pursuing it. For example, they
found that people who were about to confront someone
preferred to be in an angry mood and performed better if they
were.
Much more research is needed into why SWB predicts
desirable behavioral and health outcomes. Low life satisfac-
tion predicts a greater likelihood of suicide, a connection that
seems straightforward. However, findings by Luhmann, Lu-
cas, Eid, and Diener (2012) suggest that life satisfaction
predicts future events for varying reasons. It predicts events
such as divorce because a conflictual marriage leads both to
low life satisfaction and to a greater probability of divorcing.
Other events might be predicted by low life satisfaction
because it accompanies a desire to change one’s circum-
stances. Consistent with this interpretation, Luhmann et al.
found that starting a new job and relocating to a new geo-
graphical location both followed low life satisfaction. Finally,
long-term life satisfaction might predict even temporally
distant events because the antecedents of life satisfaction,
such as higher income and a happy disposition, also might
increase the likelihood of certain events. Luhmann et al.’s
findings on a higher likelihood of parenthood for those high
593
 in life satisfaction a number of years before childbirth are
consistent with this idea.
There are additional possible reasons that high SWB pre-
dicts future life events. High levels of positive feelings might
lead to certain outcomes for reasons such as greater creativ-
ity, risk taking, and goal-approach behavior. Discovering the
reasons why SWB predicts future behavior requires more
in-depth research, and understanding these associations will
have significant applied as well as theoretical importance.
Behavioral scientists and others are now working on in-
terventions to enhance people’s SWB (e.g., Lyubomirsky &
Della Porta, 2010; Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006). If these
interventions are replicable, we should know what the full
range of outcomes will be, beyond people simply feeling
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
better. For example, if happy employees are more productive,
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
this is important information for organizations and societies.
However, if people in some societies are already happy
enough for effective functioning, and further gains will not
benefit productivity, citizenship, or other outcomes, this too
is important information for citizens and leaders alike.
Thinking of SWB as an antecedent of events, not just as
following from them, raises a host of intriguing new ques-
tions: When and why does SWB predict outcomes? In what
circumstances is high SWB most beneficial, and when is it
detrimental? Are there optimal levels of SWB for particular
situations? Are societies best served by having individuals
who differ in levels of SWB? Do cultures differ in the degree
to which the experience and expression of SWB are benefi-
cial?
National Accounts of Subjective
Well-Being
It can be argued that the good society is one offering the most
SWB to the greatest number of its citizens. Thus, assessing
the SWB of societies is a way of measuring the quality of life
in them. My colleagues and I have argued that the SWB
approach captures important information that is not contained
in economic indicators (Diener, Lucas, Schimmack, & Helli-
well, 2009; Diener & Seligman, 2004).
On the basis of the idea that an important aspect of a good
society is that people in it like and enjoy their lives, I
proposed that societies establish national accounts of subjec-
tive and psychosocial well-being (Diener, 2000). Because
quality of life includes more than money, the SWB measures
can help highlight quality of life factors such as the environ-
ment, social relationships, health, and so forth that are not
fully captured by economic indices. Furthermore, the bene-
ficial outcomes of high SWB add an additional reason to
adopt measures of SWB at the national level.
Measures of SWB can provide a greater voice to factors
beyond economic growth that are important to well-being and
quality of life. For instance, in the Gallup World Poll, after
controlling for income, average life satisfaction and the en-
joyment of life in societies are both predicted by other fac-
594
tors. Social support (being able to count on others in emer-
gencies and feeling respected), safety (not having been
assaulted or having things stolen), and water quality (reflect-
ing environmental well-being as well as societal spending on
basic needs for everyone) all substantially predict life satis-
faction and enjoyment of life after controlling for household
income. Thus, SWB measures have the ability to capture
forms of quality of life besides money. The SWB measures
can reflect aspects of quality of life such as social capital that
are not contained in social indicators such as crime statistics.
SWB measures also can help policymakers estimate weights
to give to various aspects of quality of life.
The SWB measures reflect facets of society and daily
living that are relevant for policy. For instance, life satisfac-
tion is lower when commuting to work is long and difficult
(Stutzer & Frey, 2008), when the air is polluted (Luechinger,
2007), and when there is airport noise (van Praag & Baarsma,
2005). Each of these findings can have policy implications.
For example, the SWB findings point to certain policies (e.g.,
zoning that allows work areas, shopping areas, and housing
areas to be proximal to one another) rather than to other
policies (e.g., building more freeways and subways connect-
ing to the suburbs).
In the health area, SWB data can help apportion research
dollars between diseases based in part on the amount of
misery or unhappiness they cause (Dolan & White, 2007).
There are policy questions in education, housing, and many
other areas on which the SWB data can help throw additional
light on the issues. The data on “happiness” do not provide
complete answers about what policies should be adopted, of
course, but they can provide additional insights that can be of
help in policy deliberations.
There has now been notable success in nations discussing
and adopting measures of SWB to use in policy deliberations.
For example, in 2010 the prime minister of the United King-
dom announced that the nation would monitor well-being,
and the measures that were adopted included life satisfaction
and positive feelings. The Organization of Economic Coop-
eration and Development (OECD) is a major international
organization that helps coordinate statistics between more
than 30 of the wealthiest nations of the world. The OECD has
been issuing reports on the validity of the SWB measures and
how they might be used in the national accounting systems of
nations. There are parallel efforts in nations such as Chile,
Japan, and Australia. In the United States, some of the
national health-monitoring activities of the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention (CDC) include surveys of SWB.
The Himalayan nation of Bhutan has famously declared that
it will use GHP, or the gross happiness product, to guide its
policies. Thus, the idea of national and international accounts
of SWB is becoming a reality.
The finding that societies differ substantially in SWB
leads to important applied questions: What societal factors
most influence SWB? What do the SWB measures assess that
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
 the economic indicators do not? What variables should we be
assessing that are relevant to policy and that might influence
SWB? What are the dangers of the government manipulating
measures of SWB (Frey, 2011)? Are there optimal levels of
SWB for societies?
Methodological Advances
Although the limitations of self-report measures and cross-
sectional correlations at one point in time have been under-
stood for many decades, the field of SWB is still based
primarily on these methods. Recent research using longitu-
dinal and experimental designs as well as employing multi-
method measurement reveals that prior conclusions must
often be revised when more sophisticated methodologies are
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
used. Thus, we need more rigorous research methods in the
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
field.
A problem with cross-sectional correlational designs is
that they fail to capture causal direction. Thus married people
might be happier because the married state makes people
happy or because people who marry tend to be dispositionally
happier than never-married or divorced individuals. Lucas,
Clark, Georgellis, and Diener (2003) found that people who
will later marry were happier even many years before mar-
rying than were people who did not marry and people who
got married and then divorced. Indeed, people who divorced
were less happy even many years before they married in the
first place (Lucas et al., 2003; Luhmann & Eid, 2009). These
findings point to the possibility that many correlations re-
ported in the literature may be due to selection of individuals
into the condition rather than to the condition itself—for
example, having children, being unemployed, or getting di-
vorced. Thus, longitudinal designs are valuable in SWB
research, and cross-sectional findings must be interpreted
cautiously.
Experimental and quasi-experimental studies can also sub-
stantially enhance SWB research. For example, in the health
domain, one can analyze the effects of SWB on health
parameters by experimentally raising or lowering the moods
of participants and then assessing physiological variables (see
Diener & Chan, 2011, for examples). The research of Suh and
his colleagues described earlier is an example of using both
experimental and naturalistic methods to confirm the causes
of SWB. Researchers can also examine events such as natural
disasters and assess the effects on health and mortality in a
quasi-experimental way. Health and well-being researchers
can follow people over time and can also employ experiments
with animals where moods and emotions are likely altered as
well as conduct longitudinal studies with humans. Thus, in
studies on health and SWB, simple cross-sectional correla-
tions are no longer sufficient, as is true in most areas of SWB
research.
Many studies report a positive correlation between income
and SWB, but are these associations due to the influence of
money on SWB or due to the fact that high-SWB individuals
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
are likely to earn more money than their sad, angry, or
depressed counterparts? One strategy to explore causality in
this case is to compare lottery winners with those who buy
lottery tickets but do not win, which would thus provide a
type of natural experiment. Research examining lottery win-
ners shows that they are happier than comparable individuals
not winning lotteries and thus suggests that higher incomes
can raise SWB (Apouey & Clark, 2011; Smith & Razzell,
1975; Winkelman, Oswald, & Powdthavee, 2012). In longi-
tudinal research, Diener, Tay, and Oishi (2012) found that
rising incomes in societies were accompanied by rising life
satisfaction but not necessarily more positive feelings or
fewer negative feelings.
In Diener, Tay, and Inglehart’s (2012) review of life
satisfaction scales, virtually all of the studies reviewed were
based on self-report scales. Global self-reports have known
limitations and shortcomings, and adding other forms of
measures of SWB can be helpful in complementing the
self-report assessments with measures that have other
strengths. For example, reports of the target person’s SWB by
family and friends can be used (e.g., Zou, Schimmack, &
Gere, 2012), as can measurements of momentary or daily
moods averaged over time (see Oishi, 2012, for a review).
Biological measures based on brain activation (e.g., Urry et
al., 2004) or immune strength (e.g., Miller, Chen, & Cole,
2009) can also be employed to reflect levels of SWB, as can
facial measures of emotion (e.g., Harker & Keltner, 2001).
Methodological advances in the field point to key ques-
tions for future research: Do findings generalize across dif-
ferent forms of measures of SWB, and do they replicate in
different cultures? Are the correlates of SWB due to the
likelihood of happy people experiencing those conditions or
due to the effects of the conditions themselves? When does
SWB causally influence later behavior?
Conclusions
There are many exciting research directions on SWB in
addition to those I have described here. For example, Ly-
ubomirsky and Della Porta (2010) and Seligman et al. (2006)
have worked on interventions to increase happiness. Soto and
Luhmann (2012) found, as have many others (Steel, Schmidt,
& Shultz, 2008), that personality is a reliable predictor of
SWB. Importantly, they also found that personality can mod-
erate the impact of life circumstances. Across three large and
representative samples, Soto and Luhmann found that the life
satisfaction of neurotics, compared with that of nonneurotics,
was more influenced by their incomes. These promising lines
of research, as well as many others in the field, demonstrate
that the field is vibrant and making progress.
Although I have described research on SWB by combin-
ing findings on the various types of SWB, there are different
processes involved in life satisfaction, positive feelings, and
negative feelings. These types of SWB can differ in terms of
their causes (e.g., Diener, Kahneman, Tov, & Arora, 2010;
595
 Schimmack, Schupp, & Wagner, 2008), consequences (Wi-
est, Schüz, Webster, & Wurm, 2011), and stability over time
(Eid & Diener, 2004). Thus far there is only a rudimentary
understanding of the differences, and examining the overlap
and divergence of various forms of SWB is a critical task for
the future.
The three decades I have spent conducting research and
scholarship on SWB have been rewarding, with many scien-
tists and practitioners entering the field and with the range of
questions being asked being greatly expanded. Governments
have grown interested in using SWB measures to help guide
policy.
The sophistication of the research methods used has been
improving, and many more multimethod and longitudinal
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
studies are needed. My hope is that young investigators will
analyze new questions arising in the field with sophisticated
methods. Although the past was often dominated by simple
correlational studies, the biggest promise for the future will
often come from experimental, longitudinal, and multim-
ethod approaches. I am hopeful that in the future we will
know how much SWB is desirable for effective functioning
in various circumstances and know how best to achieve
sustainable SWB.
REFERENCES
Aknin, L. B., Sandstrom, G. M., Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2011).
Investing in others: Prosocial spending for (pro) social change. In R.
Biswas-Diener (Ed.), Positive psychology in social change (pp. )219 –
234. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-
9938-9_13
Apouey, B., & Clark, A. E. (2011). Winning big but feeling no better? The
effects of lottery prizes on physical and mental health, Manuscript sub-
mitted for publication.
Becchetti, L., Castriota, S., & Giachin, E. (2011). Beyond the Joneses:
Inter-country income comparisons and happiness (Society for the Study
of Economic Inequality Working Paper 189. )Retrieved from http://
www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2011-189.pdf
Boehm, J. K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Does happiness lead to career
success? Journal of Career Assessment, 16, 101–116. doi:10.1177/
1069072707308140
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and
accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 36, 917–927. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.36.8.917
Brief, A. P., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1986). Prosocial organizational behaviors.
Academy of Management Review, 11, 710 –725.
Cantril, H. (1965). The pattern of human concerns. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press.
Chida, Y., & Steptoe, A. (2008). Positive psychological well-being and
mortality: A quantitative review of perspective observational studies.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 70, 741–756. doi:10.1097/PSY
.0b013e31818105ba
Clark, A. E., Diener, E., Georgellis, Y., & Lucas, R. E. (2008). Lags and
leads in life satisfaction: A test of the baseline hypothesis. The Economic
Journal, 118, F222–F243. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02150.x
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–
575. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.95.3.542
Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness, and a
proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34 – 43. doi:10
.1037/0003-066X.55.1.34
Diener, E., & iswas-Diener, R. (2008). Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries
of psychological wealth. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
596
Diener, E., & Chan, M. Y. (2011). Happy people live longer: Subjective
well-being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology:
Health and Well-Being, 3, 1– 43. doi:10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01045.x
Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological
Science, 7, 181–185. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00354.x
Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction
and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68,
653– 663. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.653
Diener, E., Kahneman, D., Tov, W., & Arora, R. (2010). Income’s associ-
ation with judgments of life versus feelings. In E. Diener, D. Kahneman,
& J. F. Helliwell (Eds.), International differences in well-being (pp.
)3–15. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:doi:10.1093/acprof:
oso/9780199732739.003.0001
Diener, E., Lucas, R., Schimmack, U., & Helliwell, J. (2009). Well-being for
public policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10. 1093/
acprof:oso/9780195334074. 001. 0001
Diener, E., Lucas, R., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic
treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psy-
chologist, 61, 305–314. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.4.305
Diener, E., Nickerson, C., Lucas, R. E., & Sandvik, E. (2002). Dispositional
affect and job outcomes. Social Indicators Research, 59, 229 –259. doi:
10.1023/A:1019672513984
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Personality, culture, and
subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. An-
nual Review of Psychology, 54, 403– 425. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54
.101601.145056
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Suh, E. (2012). The happy species and the evolu-
tionary importance of happiness: But should we be even happier? Un-
published manuscript, University of Illinois.
Diener, E., Scollon, C. K. N., Oishi, S., Dzokoto, V., & Suh, E. M. (2000).
Positivity and the construction of life satisfaction judgments: Global
happiness is not the sum of its parts. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1,
159 –176. doi:10.1023/A:1010031813405
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an
economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5,
1–31. doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.00501001.x
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective
well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276 –
302. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.276
Diener, E., Tay, L., & Inglehart, R. (2012). Theory and validity of life
satisfaction scales. Social Indicators Research. Advance online publica-
tion. doi:10.1007/s11205-012-0076-y
Diener, E., Tay, L., & Myers, D. (2011). The religion paradox: If religion
makes people happy, why are so many dropping out? Journal of Person-
ality and Social Psychology, 101, 1278 –1290. doi:10.1037/a0024402
Diener, E., Tay, L., & Oishi, S. (2012). Easterlin was wrong –and right:
Income change and happiness. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Dolan, P., & White, M. P. (2007). How can measures of subjective well-
being be used to inform public policy? Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 2, 71– 85. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00030.x
Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with
implications for corporate social responsibility. Manuscript submitted for
publication.
Eid, M., & Diener, E. (2001). Norms for experiencing emotions in different
cultures: Inter- and intranational differences. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 81, 869 – 885. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.5.869
Eid, M., & Diener, E. (2004). Global judgments of subjective well-being:
Situational variability and long-term stability. Social Indicators Re-
search, 65, 245–277. doi:10.1023/B:SOCI.0000003801.89195.bc
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human
Relations, 7, 117–140. doi:10.1177/001872675400700202
Frey, B. (2011). Subjective well-being, politics and political economy.
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 147, 397– 415.
Fujita, F., & Diener, E. (2005). Life satisfaction set-point: Stability and
change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 158 –164.
doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.1.158
Fulmer, C. A., Gelfand, M. J., Kruglanski, A., Kim-Prieto, C., Diener, E.,
Pierro, A., & Higgins, E. (2010). On “feeling right” in cultural contexts:
How person– culture match affects self-esteem and subjective well-being.
Psychological Science, 21, 1563–1569. doi:10.1177/0956797610384742
George, J. M., & Zhou, J. (2007). Dual tuning in a supportive context: Joint
contributions of positive mood, negative mood, and supervisory behav-
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
 iors to employee creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 605–
622.
Graham, C., & Pettinato, S. (2006). Frustrated achievers: Winners, losers,
and subjective well-being in Peru’s emerging economy. Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science, 606, 128 –153. doi:
10.1177/0002716206288192
Gruber, J., Mauss, I. B., & Tamir, M. (2011). A dark side of happiness?
How, when, and why happiness is not always good. Perspectives on
Psychological Science, 6, 222–233. doi:10.1177/1745691611406927
Harker, L., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions of positive emotions in
women’s college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality
and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 80, 112–124. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.1.112
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., Asplund, J., & Kilham, E. A. (2010). Causal
impact of employee work perceptions on the bottom line of organizations.
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 378 –389. doi:10.1177/
1745691610374589
Hsee, C. K., & Zhang, J. (2010). General evaluability theory. Perspectives
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
on Psychological Science, 5, 343–355. doi:10.1177/1745691610374586
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
Lucas, R. E. (2007). Adaptation and the set-point model of subjective
well-being: Does happiness change after major life events? Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 75–79. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721
.2007.00479.x
Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgellis, Y., & Diener, E. (2003). Reexamining
adaptation and the set point model of happiness: Reactions to change in
marital status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 527–
539. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.527
Luechinger, S. (2007). Valuing air quality using the life satisfaction ap-
proach. Unpublished manuscript, University of Zurich, Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology.
Luhmann, M., & Eid, M. (2009). Does it really feel the same? Changes in
life satisfaction following repeated life events. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 97, 363–381. doi:10.1037/a0015809
Luhmann, M., Hofman, W., Eid, M., & Lucas, R. E. (2012). Subjective
well-being and adaptation to life events: A meta-analysis. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 592– 615. doi:10.1037/
a0025948
Luhmann, M., Lucas, R. E., Eid, M., & Diener, E. (2012). The prospective
effect of life satisfaction on life events. Social Psychological and Per-
sonality Science. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/
1948550612440105
Lyubomirsky, S., & Della Porta, M. (2010). Boosting happiness, buttressing
resilience: Results from cognitive and behavioral interventions. In J. W.
Reich, A. J. Zautra, & J. Hall (Eds.), Handbook of adult resilience:
Concepts, methods, and applications (pp. 459 – 464). New York, NY:
Guilford Press.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent
positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin,
131, 803– 855. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803
Miller, G. E., Chen, E., & Cole, S. W. (2009). Healh psychology: Devel-
oping biologically plausible models linking the social world and physical
health. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 501–524. doi:10.1146/annurev
.psych.60.110707.163551
Oishi, S. (2012). The psychological wealth of nations: Do happy people
make a happy society? Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell
Oishi, S., Diener, E., & Lucas, R. E. (2007). The optimum level of
well-being: Can people be too happy? Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 2, 346 –360. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00048.x
November 2012 ● American Psychologist
Oishi, S., & Schimmack, U. (2010). Culture and well-being: A new inquiry
into the psychological wealth of nations. Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 5, 463– 471. doi:10.1177/1745691610375561
Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., & Sgroi, D. (2012). Happiness and productivity.
Manuscript submitted for publication.
Nickerson, C., Diener, E., & Schwarz, S. (2011). Positive affect and college
success. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 717–746.
Priller, E., & Schupp, J. (2011). Social and economic characteristics of financial and
blood donors in Germany. DIW Economic Bulletin, 6, 23–30.
Schimmack, U., Schupp, J., & Wagner, G. G. (2008). The influence of
environment and personality on the affective and cognitive component of
subjective well-being, Social Indicators Research, 89, 41– 60. doi:10
.1007/s11205-007-9230-3
Seligman, M. E. P., Rashid, T., & Parks, A. C. (2005). Positive psychology
progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist,
60, 410 – 421. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410
Shin, N., Vaughn, B. E., Akers, V., Kim, M., Stevens, S., Krzysik, L., . . . Korth, B.
(2011). Are happy children socially successful? Testing a central premise of
positive psychology in a sample of preschool children. Journal of Positive
Psychology, 6, 355–367. doi:10.1080/17439760.2011.584549
Smith, S., & Razzell, P. (1975). The pools’ winners. London, England:
Calibon Books.
Soto, C. J., & Luhmann, M. (2012). Who can buy happiness? Personality
traits moderate the effects of stable income differences and income
fluctuations on life satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality
Science. Advance online publication (Ed.), 10.1177/1948550612444139
Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between
personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, .138 –
161. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.138
Stutzer, A., & Frey, B. S. (2008). Stress that doesn’t pay: The commuting
paradox. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110, 339 –366. doi:10
.1111/j.1467-9442.2008.00542.x
Suh, E. M. (2002). Culture, identity consistency, and subjective well-being.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1378 –1391. doi:10
.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1378
Suh, E. M., Diener, E., & Updegraff, J. A. (2008). From culture to priming
conditions—Self-construal influences on life satisfaction judgments.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 3–15. doi:10.1177/
0022022107311769
Tov, W., & Diener, E. (2007). Culture and subjective well-being. In S.
Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp.
691–713). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Urry, H. L., Nitschke, J. B., Dolski, I., Jackson, D. C., Dalton, K. M.,
Mueller, C. J.,. . . ]?⬎Davidson, R. J. (2004). Making a life worth living:
Neural correlates of well-being. Psychological Science, 15, 367–372.
doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00686.x
van Praag, B. M. S., & Baarsma, B. E. (2005). Using happiness surveys to
value intangibles: The case of airport noise. The Economic Journal, 115,
224 –246. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2004.00967.x
Wiest, M., Schüz, B., Webster, N., & Wurm, S. (2011). Subjective well-
being and mortality revisited: Differential effects of cognitive and emo-
tional facets of well-being on mortality. Health Psychology, 30, 728 –735.
doi:10.1037/a0023839
Wilson, W. (1967). Correlates of avowed happiness. Psychological Bulletin,
67, 294 –306. doi:10.1037/h0024431
Winkelman, R., Oswald, A. J., & Powdthavee, N. (2010). What happens to
people after winning the lottery? Manuscript submitted for publication.
Zou, C., Schimmack, U., & Gere, J. (2012). Towards an integrated theory
of the nature and measurement of well-being: A multiple-indicator-
multiple-rater model. Manuscript submitted for publication.
597