Being happy. The role of personal value priorities in subjective well-being across European countries

Abstract

The feeling of well-being differs across cultural contexts and can be understood from the perspective of personal value priorities. This study uses a multilevel model with a sample of 324,204 people from 31 European countries and shows that the values conformity, tradition, benevolence, self-direction, and hedonism exert a positive average influence, whereas universalism and power exert a negative average influence on subjective well-being. Comparing similar value-outcome relationships in multiple countries simultaneously reveals that the geographical boundaries of a country strongly influence the kind of role values play, with very different and sometimes opposing effects across countries. The study also considers how subjective well-being is related to the fit of personal value priorities with the prevailing values in the environment. While value incongruency is negatively related to well-being in Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Greece, Lithuania, and Ukraine, it has a positive effect in other countries in the eastern and northern parts of Europe.