The Impact of Culture on Well-Being: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Hajdu, Gábor; Hajdu, Tamás

doi:10.1007/s10902-015-9633-9

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…Similar results for life satisfaction, which depends heavily on social trust, have also been obtained using data from the European Values Survey, showing life satisfaction for European migrants tended to be an “alloy” incorporating the levels in both the host and origin countries (Hajdu and Hajdu 2016, Senik 2014, Voicu and Vasile 2014). Others have found an average footprint of source country life satisfaction of 28% for migrants between 34 countries surveyed in the ESS, but also find the magnitude of this effect to vary considerably across destination countries (Hajdu and Hajdu 2016). With our large sample of migrants from many different countries to two different destination countries, we are able to assess the convergence hypothesis more powerfully than in previous studies, following the partial precedent of Frank et al.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Migration as a test of the happiness set‐point hypothesis: Evidence from immigration to Canada and the United Kingdom

Helliwell

Shiplett

Bonikowska

2020

Canadian J of Economics

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Strong versions of the set-point hypothesis argue that subjective well-being measures reflect primarily each individual's own personality and that deviations are temporary. International migration provides an excellent test, since life circumstances and subjective well-being differ greatly among countries. With or without adjustments for selection effects, the levels and distributions of immigrant life-satisfaction scores for immigrants to the United Kingdom and Canada from up to 100 source countries mimic those in their destination countries, and even the destination regions within those countries, rather than those in their source countries, showing that subjective life evaluations are substantially driven by life circumstances and respond when those circumstances change. Résumé. L'immigration comme test de la théorie des seuils de bonheur : l'exemple du Canada et du Royaume-Uni. Les principaux tenants de la théorie des seuils de bonheur font valoir que les évaluations subjectives du bien-être reflètent essentiellement la personnalité de chaque individu, et que les dérogations à ces seuils ne sont que temporaires. L'immigration internationale offre un excellent moyen de mettre cette théorie à l'épreuve étant donné que les circonstances de vie ainsi que le bien-être subjectif varient considérablement d'un pays à l'autre. Avec ou sans ajustements relatifs

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Migration as a test of the happiness set‐point hypothesis: Evidence from immigration to Canada and the United Kingdom

Helliwell

Shiplett

Bonikowska

2020

Canadian J of Economics

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“…Thus, whether our results can be generalized to real‐world and/or long‐term behavior needs further study. Sixth, previous research suggests that international migrants’ cultural background has a significant impact on their SWB (Hajdu & Hajdu, 2016; Rice & Steele, 2004; Voicu & Vasile, 2014). However, our two experiments did not collect information about participants’ cultural heritage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sense of belonging, international migrants’ spending, and implications for their subjective well‐being

Hang

Zhong

2022

Int J Consumer Studies

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A lack of a sense of belonging in the host country has become one of the most common challenges facing international migrants in today's sociopolitical environment.Our two online experiments with 881 international migrant workers in the United States jointly demonstrate that, to cope with their lack of a sense of belonging in the host country, international migrants may spend money suboptimally: more on material purchases but less on experiential and prosocial purchases. More importantly, our studies suggest that prosocial purchases are more effective than experiential purchases in increasing international migrants' subjective well-being. This is because prosocial purchases can lead to both relatedness need satisfaction and beneficence, with each independently contributing to international migrants' subjective well-being.Our research suggests that public policymakers should address the social exclusion international migrants experience when moving to a new country because it can have a negative impact on their subjective well-being. Our research further suggests that one way to mitigate social exclusion is to encourage international migrants to spend money on others rather than themselves.

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“…This finding may suggest a difference in consumers’ perception of treatment, socialization, or perspective, but it also may be an artifact of the country of origin. For example, many studies have demonstrated that self-reported QOL ratings in the general population tend to have country-level influences such that higher-income countries such as the FSU would have better QOL and life satisfaction ratings compared to lower-income countries such as Ethiopia (Diener, Inglehart, & Tay, 2013; Eksi & Kaya, 2017; Hajdu & Hajdu, 2016). However, this finding was not supported by our results, which showed that QOL rates in Ethiopian immigrants were higher than those of FSU immigrants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of life of immigrants and nonimmigrants in psychiatric rehabilitation.

Zlotnick¹,

Nisim²,

Roe

et al. 2021

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal

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Objective: This study examined whether personal characteristics of consumers with serious mental illness (SMI), including being an immigrant, explained the lack of concordance in quality-of-life (QOL) ratings reported by consumers versus those reported by staff caring for consumers. Method: In a sample of consumers with SMI (n = 4,956), including nonimmigrants and immigrants from Ethiopia and countries comprising the former Soviet Union (FSU), we examined consumer-reported and staff-reported QOL ratings. Regression models measured the contributions of covariates to QOL ratings made by both groups. Results: Staff-reported QOL ratings were consistently lower than consumer-reported QOL ratings. Consumer-reported QOL ratings made by FSU immigrants were lower than consumer-reported QOL ratings made by Ethiopian immigrants or by nonimmigrants (p < .01). Conversely, staff-reported QOL ratings on Ethiopian immigrants were lower than staff-reported QOL ratings on FSU immigrants or nonimmigrants (p < .05). While consumer-reported QOL ratings were associated with the covariates of gender (p < .01), disability level (p < .001), and health status (p < .001), staff-reported QOL ratings were associated with the covariates of single marital status (p < .05), education (p < .001), and disability level (p < .001). Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Among consumers with SMI, FSU immigrants reported the lowest QOL ratings, yet staff rated the QOL of Ethiopian immigrants as the lowest. Bias is a potential explanation for this discrepancy. An educational program focusing on cultural awareness, sensitivity, and competency might help staff better understand consumers’ needs, thereby contributing to better service and potentially improving staff’s ability to make assessments of consumers’ functioning and QOL.

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The Impact of Culture on Well-Being: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Cited by 23 publications

References 47 publications

Migration as a test of the happiness set‐point hypothesis: Evidence from immigration to Canada and the United Kingdom

Migration as a test of the happiness set‐point hypothesis: Evidence from immigration to Canada and the United Kingdom

Sense of belonging, international migrants’ spending, and implications for their subjective well‐being

Quality of life of immigrants and nonimmigrants in psychiatric rehabilitation.

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