Culture and life satisfaction in developed and less developed nations

Abstract

Defining culture by reference to deeply engrained societal values and beliefs, this article makes two contributions to the growing field of satisfaction research: first, it explores whether and to what extent a range of cultural values serve as important moderators of individuals' life satisfaction; and second, it also tries to uncover if the economic development status of countries in which individuals live mitigates the impact of these cultural values. Based on sub-samples of the fourth wave of the World Value Survey, the empirical results show that several cultural values are indeed very significant influences on individuals' assessment of their life satisfaction. The importance of work, family, religion and interpersonal trust play a particularly prominent role. However, contrary to previous assertions, cultural values also appear to have a rather different effect on life satisfaction when examined in the context of developed versus less developed economies.

Acknowledgements

The analysis in this study is based on unit record data from the fourth wave of the WVS (1999–2002). The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes

¹Details of the data set are described in the work of Inglehart et al. (2004).

²Although a larger set of cultural value variables is available (Inglehart and Baker, 2000), the number of variables used is restricted in support of the goal to measure only broad dimensions of cross-cultural variation.