Does Individual Secularism Promote Life Satisfaction? The Moderating Role of Societal Development |
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Authors: | Liman Man Wai Li Michael H Bond |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong, S.A.R., China;(2) Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China |
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Abstract: | This study was designed to examine the link between values and life satisfaction, examining the role of culture in this process.
Secularism was found to predict life satisfaction scores at a small but statistically very significant level in persons from
all nations participating in all four waves of the World Values Survey. The direction and strength of this relationship was
moderated, however, by the country’s human development index—people in low-HDI countries consistently showed a negative relationship
between secularism and happiness across the four waves of the WVS; people in high-HDI countries initially showed a negative
relationship between secularism and happiness in Waves 1 and 2, but a positive relationship between secularism and happiness
in Waves 3 and 4. These results thus appear to support a “cultural fit” hypothesis consistently for persons in low HDI countries,
and a transition towards a “cultural fit” for persons in HDI countries as data was collected across the four waves. By Wave
4, it is clear that citizens who endorse values consistent with their county’s developmental trajectory are more satisfied
with their lives. This study demonstrates the amenability of the data collected by the World Values Survey to individual-level
analysis of psychological process that is responsive to the shaping influence of variations in their nation’s societal characteristics. |
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