Does Happiness Differ Across Cultures?

This book deals with a classic question in the study of happiness: Is happiness similar for all humans, or is it something that varies across cultures? In the universalistic view, happiness is comparable to pain. All humans know what pain is, will experience pain when touching a hot stove, and tend to avoid pain. In the cultural view, happiness is more comparable to beauty, the idea of which varies across time and culture. In this chapter, I present evidence for the view that happiness in the sense of life-satisfaction is known all over the world and that its determinants and consequence are quite similar everywhere.