Did the Decline in Social Connections Depress Americans’ Happiness?
By S. Bartolini, Ennio Bilancini, M. Pugno. 2013
198 citations recorded by the source corpus.
During the last 30 years US citizens experienced, on average, a decline in reported happiness, social connections, and confidence in institutions. We show that a remarkable portion of the decrease in happiness is predicted by the decline in social connections and confidence in institutions. We carry out our investigation in three steps. First, we run a happiness regression that includes various indicators of social connections and confidence in institutions, alongside with own income, reference income, and the usual socio-demographic controls. We find that indicators of social connections and confidence in institutions are positively and significantly correlated with happiness. Second, we investigate the evolution of social connections and confidence in institutions over time, finding that they generally show a declining trend. Third, we calculate the variation in happiness over time as predicted by each of its statistically significant correlates, finding that the decrease in happiness is mainly predicted by the decline in social connections and by the growth in reference income. More precisely, the sum of the negative changes in happiness predicted by the reduction in social connections and the increase in reference income more than offsets the positive change predicted by the growth of household income. Also, the reduction in happiness predicted by the decline in confidence in institutions is non-negligible, although substantially smaller than the one predicted by either social connections or reference income.
Subfields: Health, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a34d3c51bde360bd2e752ca59814f2c9f075f384
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Citations in the corpus
- When Does Economic Growth Improve Life Satisfaction? Multilevel Analysis of the Roles of Social Trust and Income Inequality in 46 Countries, 1981–2012 (2017, methodology): “…on inequality and subjective well-being, and on economic growth, inequality and social capital (Cleaver, 2005; Brady et al., 2007; Frank, 2007; Bartolini et al., 2013a,b; Bartolini and Sarracino, 2014; Ono and Lee, 2013; Rözer and Kraaykamp, 2013; Josten, 2004; Zagorski et al., 2014; Gould…”
- The Dark Side of Chinese Growth: Declining Social Capital and Well-Being in Times of Economic Boom (2015, background): “Our figures from China resemble those from the US documented by Bartolini, Bilancini, and Pugno, 2013: the declining trend of happiness in the US is almost entirely predicted by social comparisons and by the decline in social capital.”