Aversion to Happiness Across Cultures: A Review of Where and Why People are Averse to Happiness

By Mohsen Joshanloo, Dan Weijers. 2014

206 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A common view in contemporary Western culture is that personal happiness is one of the most important values in life. For example, in American culture it is believed that failing to appear happy is cause for concern. These cultural notions are also echoed in contemporary Western psychology (including positive psychology and much of the research on subjective well-being). However, some important (often culturally-based) facts about happiness have tended to be overlooked in the psychological research on the topic. One of these cultural phenomena is that, for some individuals, happiness is not a supreme value. In fact, some individuals across cultures are averse to various kinds of happiness for several different reasons. This article presents the first review of the concept of aversion to happiness. Implications of the outcomes are discussed, as are directions for further research.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/60d94d06fc4096a0e1b3c6bc64e81219026f5349

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. John M. Zelenski
2. Joonha Park
3. C. Capaldi
4. M. Bond

In Social Psychology

1. John M. Zelenski
2. Joonha Park
3. Yukiko Uchida
4. C. Capaldi
5. M. Bond
6. K. Leung
7. Peter B. Smith

Citations in the corpus

• Putting the “We” Into Well‐being: Using Collectivism‐Themed Measures of Well‐Being Attenuates Well‐being's Association With Individualism (2019, background): “Some research even suggests that a fear of happiness is less prevalent in individualistic societies (Joshanloo & Weijers, 2014).”