Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter

Kanazawa, Satoshi; Li, Norman P.

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2015.06.004

Cited by 26 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While positive psychologists in the last few decades have accumulated an impressive amount of empirical knowledge about who under what circumstances or in what conditions are happier than whom, there have been few general theories in positive psychology that explain why some individuals are happier than others (other than to point to genetic predisposition and the heritability of happiness). In this paper, we proposed the savanna theory of happiness , which suggests that it is not only the current consequences of a given situation but also its ancestral consequences that affect subjective well‐being (Kanazawa & Li, ). That is, individuals’ life satisfaction may fluctuate with what the situation would have meant in the ancestral environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The savanna theory of happiness therefore suggests that, having implicit difficulty comprehending and dealing with evolutionarily novel situations, the human brain may respond to the ancestral consequences of the current situation and individuals’ subjective well‐being may fluctuate accordingly (Kanazawa & Li, ). Situations and circumstances that would have increased our ancestors’ life satisfaction in the ancestral environment may still increase our life satisfaction today, and those that would have decreased their life satisfaction then may still decrease our life satisfaction today.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Country roads, take me home… to my friends: How intelligence, population density, and friendship affect modern happiness

Kanazawa

2016

British J of Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We propose the savanna theory of happiness, which suggests that it is not only the current consequences of a given situation but also its ancestral consequences that affect individuals' life satisfaction and explains why such influences of ancestral consequences might interact with intelligence. We choose two varied factors that characterize basic differences between ancestral and modern life - population density and frequency of socialization with friends - as empirical test cases. As predicted by the theory, population density is negatively, and frequency of socialization with friends is positively, associated with life satisfaction. More importantly, the main associations of life satisfaction with population density and socialization with friends significantly interact with intelligence, and, in the latter case, the main association is reversed among the extremely intelligent. More intelligent individuals experience lower life satisfaction with more frequent socialization with friends. This study highlights the utility of incorporating evolutionary perspectives in the study of subjective well-being.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Country roads, take me home… to my friends: How intelligence, population density, and friendship affect modern happiness

Kanazawa

2016

British J of Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Racial inequality can result in psychological distress and a reduced sense of personal control (Mirowsky and Ross 1989; Hughes and Demo 1989). Individuals may also feel stress by being a member of a minority group and being seen as different (Kanazawa and Li 2015). Perceived discrimination can likewise reduce life satisfaction (Williams et al 1997; Thomas and Hughes 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black-white differences in happiness, 1972–2014

Iceland

Ludwig-Dehm

2019

Social Science Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the extent to which the black-white gap in happiness—an important indicator of subjective well-being—has narrowed over the 1972 to 2014 period. Analyzing data from the General Social Survey, we find that that the difference in levels of happiness between whites and blacks is substantial, but declined over time. Results from a decomposition analysis shed new light on the sources of change. We find that observable differences in characteristics of whites and blacks explain a significant and growing proportion of the happiness gap. The two most important characteristics are income and marital status, as both are strongly associated with race and happiness, and the proportion of the difference in the gap that they explain has generally increased over time. Overall, the declining gap in happiness is consistent with the moderate narrowing of substantial racial disparities in other realms, such as life expectancy, residential segregation, and neighborhood conditions, suggesting small steps toward equality in some realms, even as high levels of inequality persist in others.

show abstract

“…Hence, apart from clarifying events, friendship can develop when kinship indicators, such as familiarity and similarity, manifest through behaviors, such as mutual grooming and dressing, are present (Park and Ackerman 2011). However, in modern cosmopolitan societies, it is common for multiethnic individuals to live together (Kanazawa and Li 2015). This, again, is a novel phenomenon as humans lived in ethnically homogenous groups in ancestral times (Oppenheimer 2004).…”

Section: Cosmopolitan Societiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, any individual who looked, spoke, and behaved differently would not have been from one's group ancestrally. Our brains process people of different ethnicity to be potential threatssimilar to ancestral environments (Kanazawa and Li 2015). Therefore, friendship forged within the context of the modern cosmopolitan society may not be as strong as the ones that were forged among humans in the ancestral times.…”

Section: Cosmopolitan Societiesmentioning

confidence: 99%