Childhood Socioeconomic Status Shapes Beliefs About Hedonic Versus Eudaimonic Happiness: A Life History Approach

Many have pondered whether happiness is chiefly made of positive feelings and joy (hedonism) or by acquiring meaning via self-actualization (eudaimonism). Drawing on life history theory, we examined if individuals’ early-life experience (i.e., childhood socioeconomic status; SES) colors their notion...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of happiness studies Vol. 25; no. 5; p. 46
Main Authors Kim, Jinseok P., Suh, Eunkook M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Childhood
Economics
Happiness
Hedonism
Life history
Personality and Social Psychology
Philosophy
Positive Psychology
Quality of Life Research
Research Paper
Self-actualization
Social Sciences
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Well being
Lay beliefs
Happiness
Socioeconomic status
Life history theory
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Summary:Many have pondered whether happiness is chiefly made of positive feelings and joy (hedonism) or by acquiring meaning via self-actualization (eudaimonism). Drawing on life history theory, we examined if individuals’ early-life experience (i.e., childhood socioeconomic status; SES) colors their notions of well-being. A consistent pattern was found in two studies (Study 1, N = 183; Study 2, N = 168) using MTurk samples; wealthier childhood upbringing predicted stronger endorsement of eudaimonic happiness. This pattern, supporting claims of life history theory, emerged only when perceptions of (economic) instability was salient (chronic, Study 1; experimentally primed, Study 2). Also, only childhood SES, but not current SES, mattered. This research finds novel evidence that childhood experience and current threat perception may interact to shape people’s ideals of happiness.
ISSN:1389-4978
1573-7780
DOI:10.1007/s10902-024-00760-9