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Japanese Psychological Research

2016, Volume 58, No. 1, 125141
Special issue: Culture-inclusive approaches

doi: 10.1111/jpr.12103
Review

The Happiness of Individuals and the Collective

YUKIKO UCHIDA*

Kyoto University

SHIGEHIRO OISHI

University of Virginia

Abstract: Happiness and well-being are often defined as internal feelings or states of
satisfaction. As such, research on well-being has focused on the long-term happiness
and life satisfaction of individuals. But recently, psychological researchers have also
begun to examine the effects that group-level functions (e.g., nation-level economic
status) have on happiness. The present article: (a) overviews measures of individual
and collective happiness and the validity of these measurements; (b) explicates the
role of culture in understanding the long-term happiness and life satisfaction of
individuals; and (c) explores the possibility and importance of studying the happiness
of collectives (e.g., work groups, organizations, cities, nations). We then discuss
future directions for happiness research, proposing several methodological and theoretical areas for progress in: (a) cross-temporal analyses to examine historical
changes; and (b) multilevel analyses to identify the units of culture that affect
happiness. Additionally, this paper argues that policy-making and interdisciplinary
approaches can make important contributions to happiness studies.
Key words: culture, well-being, happiness, collective level.

Happiness is often defined as a feeling or state

of satisfaction that resides internally within the
individual. Although this definition would
appear to indicate a fleeting, momentary state
of satisfaction, Websters Unabridged Dictionary published in 1961 explicitly defines it as a
chronic state, a state of well-being characterized by relative permanence, by dominantly
agreeable emotion ranging in value from mere
contentment to deep and intense joy in living,
and by a natural desire for its continuation
(emphasis added by authors, see Oishi,
Graham, Kesebir, & Galinha, 2013 for various
dictionary definitions). This definition, along
with others predominant in the U.S. and other
English-speaking nations, focuses on an individuals long-term emotional state: a happy
person is a person who has pleasant feelings
most of the time, and feels satisfied with his/her

life overall. Therefore, it is not surprising that

psychological research on happiness has
focused on individuals long-term happiness
and life satisfaction (Diener, 1984; Diener, Suh,
Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Wilson, 1967).
As research on individuals long-term happiness and life satisfaction accumulates, researchers have also begun to examine the long-term
happiness and life satisfaction of nations and
communities. Specifically, just as some individuals are happier than others, are some work
groups, companies, and cities happier than
others?
The goals of the present article are to review
measures of individual and collective happiness
and the validity of these measurements, to
explicate the role of culture in understanding
the long-term happiness and life satisfaction of
individuals, and to explore the possibility and

*Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to: Yukiko Uchida, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto
University, 46 Yoshida-Shimoadachicho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan. (E-mail: uchida.yukiko.6m@kyotou.ac.jp)
2015 Japanese Psychological Association. Published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

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Y. Uchida and S. Oishi

importance of studying the happiness of the

collective. We then discuss future directions for
happiness research. Finally, we propose possibilities for how nations and communities can
utilize happiness research.

The Measurement of Happiness

Opinions regarding the measurability of happiness have changed over time in psychological
science as the validity and reliability of various
subjective scales have been tested and proven.
In 1934, George Hartmann (1934) conducted
the first investigation into the stability of happiness over time, while also looking at selfinformant agreement of happiness ratings.
Using Websters definition of happiness as [a]
relatively permanent state of well-being characterized by dominantly agreeable emotions
ranging in value from mere contentment to
positive felicity, he asked roughly 200 college
students, If you compare yourself with others
of the same sex and age, how would you rate
your own general happiness? . . . Give due
weight to both inner and outer factors or manifestations. Think of your average feeling or condition over several months, and try to view
yourself as objectively as possible. Participants
rated their happiness relative to others on a
scale of 1 (most unhappy of all) to 7 (happiest of
all). Hartmann found that this single-item
measure of happiness was highly stable over a
1-month period, r = .70. In addition, he showed
that participants self-reported happiness was
reliably correlated with the average of four
friends ratings of the participants happiness,
r = .34. Hartmann also found that ascendance
(an aspect of extraversion) was positively associated with self-reported happiness (r = .19),
and neuroticism was inversely correlated with
self-reported happiness (r = .26). He did not
find any significant correlations with selfsufficiency (r = .05) or value orientations (e.g.,
theoretical, aesthetic, economic, political).
Although Hartmanns scale was a single item,
its temporal stability and self-informant correlations are equivalent to more recent multipleitem scales (e.g. the Satisfaction with Life Scale,
Japanese Psychological Association 2015.

Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985; the

Subjective Happiness Scale, Lyubomirsky &
Lepper, 1999). In addition, the personality correlates are also similar to the contemporary
findings, which suggests construct validity.
Despite earlier efforts to establish reliable
and valid measures of happiness, happiness did
not become a popular research topic in North
America until the late 1980s (see Oishi, 2009
and Oishi, 2012 for a historical review). This is
due in part to the lasting impact of behaviorism
and the dominance of the experimental method
in American psychology. However, with several
high-profile publications in the 1980s (Diener,
1984; Diener et al., 1985; Emmons & Diener,
1985; Ryff, 1989; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen,
1988), subjective well-being research took off
and became one of the most popular research
topics in American psychology (see the list of
eminent psychologists in Diener, Oishi, & Park,
2014, which includes Daniel Kahneman, Martin
Seligman, and Ed Diener as three of the top-10
most eminent modern psychologists).
Many of the earlier publications focused on
measurement issues, such as validity and reliability. Diener et al.s (1985) Satisfaction with
Life Scale (SWLS) showed high convergent
and divergent validity, as well as high levels of
test-retest reliability (see Diener, Inglehart, &
Tay, 2013), with a 2-month test-retest reliability
coefficient of .82, and a 4-year test-retest reliability coefficient of .54 (see also Pavot &
Diener, 1993). By comparison, the 2-month
test-retest reliability of the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale, one of the most widely used
IQ tests, is .74 (Catron & Thompson, 1979),
which the SWLS scales test-retest reliability
meets or exceeds.
Subsequent research has provided further
evidence for scale reliability and validity.
Research has confirmed self-informant agreement (Schneider & Schimmack, 2009), as
well as convergence with daily diary reports,
random-moment reports, interview ratings
(Sandvik, Diener, & Seidlitz, 1993), and smile
intensity in Facebook profile photos (Seder &
Oishi, 2012). For example, a meta-analysis
of self-other agreement of life satisfaction
(including various scales) showed that the

The happiness of individuals and the collective

convergence validity coefficient was .42 with

95% confidence intervals of .39 to .45. These
numbers are comparable to the self-informant
agreement on Big Five personality traits
(Vazire, 2006). Likewise, the mean intensity of
happiness across 8 days (five random
moment reports per day) using the experience
sampling method was substantially correlated
with the SWLS (r = .46, p < .001, Schimmack,
2003). This is roughly the same as the correlation between mean state extraversion
(aggregate across multiple random moment
reports of extraversion) and trait extraversion
(r = .42, p < .001, Fleeson & Gallagher, 2009).
Thus, life satisfaction measured by the SWLS
shows a similar degree of convergent validity
as personality traits.1 In sum, there is substantial evidence for the reliability and validity
of several well-being scales (at least in the
U.S.).
For the current topic of collective happiness,
however, the key question is whether or not the
happiness of the collective can be measured
using these subjective scales. Assuming that the
reliability and validity of these scales hold
across cultures (Oishi, 2006), the mean score
could be indicative of the happiness of the collective. For instance, the national mean of subjective well-being assessed during 1 year was
highly correlated with the national mean of
subjective well-being assessed in another year
(r = .67, p < .01, Diener, Diener, & Diener,
1995). The national mean of subjective wellbeing was also associated with social indicators
in a predicted fashion: gross domestic product
(GDP, r = .58, p < .01) and fewer human rights
violations (r = .48, p < .01). Thus, the aggregate of existing measures of subjective wellbeing appears to be useful at the national level.
However, it is also important to think
critically about whether the happiness of the
collective (e.g., work group, city, nation) can
be assessed differently. Kurt Lewin (1939)
1
Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988 have gathered
similarly convincing validity data for the Positive and
Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Likewise,
Lyubomirsky and her colleagues have shown some
reliability and validity for their subjective happiness
scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999).

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famously stated that, The whole is different

from the sum of its parts (p. 885). If the whole
is indeed different from the sum of its parts,
then the happiness of the collective cannot be
accurately measured by the aggregate of individual respondents self-reported happiness. In
this regard, the research on collective efficacy is
instructive. Instead of construing it as the aggregate of self-efficacy, sociologists have successfully measured it separately at the community
level, and showed that collective efficacy predicted lower levels of violent crimes (Sampson,
Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997; see also Bonanno,
Romero, & Klein, 2015 for a similar discussion
on psychological resilience at the level of the
collective). Instead of taking the average of 10
workers, for instance, a supervisor might be
able to rate the group-level happiness reliably
and with validity (e.g., taking into account
group cohesion and other dynamics among the
workers). Unfortunately, to our knowledge,
happiness researchers have not validated any
group-level measures of happiness. Thus, the
following review of collective happiness is
based on the aggregate measure of subjective
well-being.

The Happiness of Individuals

Since the establishment of subjective wellbeing measures in the late 1980s, researchers
have begun to look at both internal factors
(e.g., habitual patterns of thought) and external
factors (e.g., cultural lay theories) to answer
more substantive questions, such as Who is
happy? and When do people feel happy? On
the one hand, happiness and well-being are subjective states that are constructed from relatively stable internal or personal factors, such as
genetics (De Neve, Christakis, Fowler, & Frey,
2012; Weiss, Bates, & Luciano, 2008), personality (see DeNeve & Cooper, 1998; Lucas, 2008
for review), material satisfaction (Larsen &
McKibban, 2008), promotion-prevention focus
(Higgins, Grant, & Shah, 1999), locus of control
(Helzer & Jayawickreme, 2015) and emotion
regulation (Gross & John, 2003). On the other
hand, engaging in activities (Sakawa, Ohtake,
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Y. Uchida and S. Oishi

& Tsutsui, 2015) such as expressing gratitude,

counting ones blessings, and thinking about an
ideal future, also predicts happiness (see
Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013 for a review),
thus leading to the occasional application of
interventionist approaches to enhance happiness. Other external factors, such as having
close relationships (Diener & Seligman, 2002),
social status (Anderson, Kraus, Galinsky, &
Keltner, 2012), economic situation (e.g., household income, Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade,
Schwarz, & Stone, 2006, or job, Ohtake,
Shiraishi, & Tsutsui, 2010), and experiencing
life events, such as marriage or divorce (Lucas,
2007; Luhmann, Hofmann, Eid, & Lucas, 2012;
Oswald & Powdthavee, 2008), are also associated with ones mean levels of happiness.
In addition to these personal factors,
macro-level factors have also been examined as
predictors of happiness. These range from
neighborhood environment (Jokela, Bleidorn,
Lamb, Gosling, & Rentfrow, 2015; White,
Alcock, Wheeler, & Depledge, 2013) to
socio-economic environment, such as income
inequality (Oishi, Kesebir, & Diener, 2011) and
social capital (Helliwell & Putnam, 2004; Ram,
2010).
Culture also serves as a boundary condition that can explain individual differences
(Uchida, Norasakkunkit, & Kitayama, 2004) in
the creation and construal of happiness. For
example, Butler, Lee, and Gross (2007) found
that the negative social effects of emotion suppression found by Gross and John (2003) were
higher for those with European-American cultural values than for those with Asian cultural
values.
Further, the culture of nations can be
examined to explain differences in happiness.
Markus, Uchida, Omoregie, Townsend, and
Kitayama (2006) investigated coverage of
Olympic medalists in the American and Japanese media. In the American context, medalists
were described as a superheroes: strong,
attractive, unique, and competitive characters.
On the other hand, Japanese media coverage
described most medalists as ordinary people:
weak, struggling, and receiving support from
family or friends. Indeed, Japanese athletes
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became more emotional when they were asked

about their relationships with their parents
or coaches in post-competition interviews
(Uchida, Townsend, Markus, & Bergsieker,
2009).
These findings suggest that lay theories about
how to go for the gold differ across cultures
and carry further implications about how happiness is achieved via goal fulfillment. American lay theories view successand perhaps also
the subsequent happiness it bringsas something that is achieved by people with exceptional abilities. We can describe this as an
incremental model of happiness. In this incremental model of happiness, positive situations
or emotions are thought to invite more positive
outcomes. Therefore, individuals are motivated
to maximize the experience of positive affect to
precipitate better outcomes.
However, Japanese lay theories view
successand
perhaps
also
subsequent
happinessas something that is achieved by
people who experience hardship but are able to
persevere thanks to the support of others. As
Ji, Nisbett, and Su (2001) suggested, individuals
in Asian cultural contexts, compared to Americans, perceive changes and evaluate their
current state of happiness by taking the ups and
downs of life as a whole. Thus, enduring hardship would be perceived as a necessary factor
for happiness. We can call this a dialectical
model of happiness. In this model, considering
the trajectory of happiness is important.
In summary, the ways in which people seek
happiness differ across cultures. Individuals
within independent cultural contexts are more
likely to be motivated to maximize the experience of positive affect and to seek happiness,
and this pursuit of happiness is seen as a fundamental human right to be protected in the
society. In contrast, within more interdependent East Asian cultural contexts, happiness
tends to be defined in terms of interpersonal
connectedness or a balance between the self
and others (see Uchida et al., 2004; Uchida &
Ogihara, 2012 for a review), and the pursuit of
happiness is not seen as a thing that the individuals can pursue, but is experienced within
shared relationships.

The happiness of individuals and the collective

Happy People Across Cultures

The relational and personal conditions that give
rise to happiness can vary across cultures, in
part due to differences in existential systems of
meaning and normative ideas about what
constitutes a proper person in society. In
European-American cultural contexts, happiness is defined as a positive emotional state that
is typically construed through achieving personal goals (Emmons, 1986) and finding positive personal attributes (Myers & Diener,
1995). Therefore, self-esteem is one of the
strongest correlates of happiness (Campbell,
1981; Diener & Diener, 1995; Diener et al.,
1985). For example, Taylor and Brown (1988)
argued that the perception of ones positive
aspects and efficacy, even when illusory, can
contribute to mental health. Thus, people who
feel that they are achieving their important personal goals (Emmons, 1986, 1991) report higher
levels of happiness. Of course, much research
suggests that social relationships, not just goal
attainment, are important within EuropeanAmerican cultures. For example, pro-social
behavior (e.g., donating or spending money on
others) is predictive of happiness (Dunn,
Aknin, & Norton, 2008; Weinstein & Ryan,
2010). Further, the perceived availability of
support has also been found to reduce health
risks (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Uchino, Cacioppo,
& Kiecolt-Glaser, 1996) and similarly, people
with positive social ties have better health outcomes (Kawachi & Berkman, 2000).
However, some evidence has suggested that
there are negative consequences to receiving
social support in the U.S. For example, social
support could cause one to feel overly dependent on others, thus lowering self-esteem and,
in turn, happiness (Bolger & Amarel, 2007;
Bolger, Foster, Vinokur, & Ng, 1996; Bolger,
Zuckerman, & Kessler, 2000; Fisher, Nadler, &
Whitcher-Alagna, 1982; Seidman, Shrout, &
Bolger, 2006). In the U.S., therefore, invisible
support might work better since it has not been
shown to be harmful to self-esteem (Bolger &
Amarel, 2007). Within European-American
cultural contexts, social support might contribute to happiness only to the extent that support
does not threaten the recipients sense of

129

self-esteem (Uchida, Kitayama, Mesquita,

Reyes, & Morling, 2008).
In contrast, within East Asian cultures, interpersonal factors, such as adapting to social
norms and fulfilling relational obligations, tend
to be connected with happiness (Suh, Diener,
Oishi, & Triandis, 1998). Individuals who
pursue interpersonal goals over personal goals
(Oishi & Diener, 2001), who feel positive relational emotional experiences (Kitayama,
Mesquita, & Karasawa, 2006), and who receive
emotional support and experience relational
harmony (Kang, Shaver, Sue, Min, & Jing,
2003; Kwan, Bond, & Singelis, 1997;
Uchida et al., 2008) are more likely to show
higher levels of happiness and psychological
well-being.
The Meaning of Happiness Across
Cultures
In addition to predictors of happiness, the
meaning of happiness appears to vary across
cultures. Such differences in meaning include
differences in the expected benefits and negative consequences of happiness, the degree to
which happiness is contemporaneous with
other emotions, and differential needs for
agency and inter-relationality to achieve
happiness.
Uchida and Ogihara (2012) conducted a systematic review of happiness in Eastern vs.
Western societies, and identified how people
define and pursue well-being/happiness differently across cultures. As the cultural psychological perspective (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)
has suggested, culture contains meaning
systems, and people in each cultural context
learn what is valuable and adaptive, and what
is undesirable and maladaptive. Within
European-American cultures, positivity and
negativity are viewed as contradictory. In contrast, they are seen as more complementary in
Asian cultures (Schimmack, Oishi, & Diener,
2002). The experience of pleasant (positive)
and unpleasant (negative) emotions was negatively correlated in the United States, whereas
they were positively correlated in China, Korea
and Japan (Bagozzi, Wong, & Yi, 1999;
Kitayama et al., 2006; Schimmack et al.,
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Y. Uchida and S. Oishi

2002). Japanese individuals experience mixed

(positive and negative) emotions more often
as happy situations than do Americans
(Miyamoto, Uchida, & Ellsworth, 2010) and
such dialectical emotional experiences positively predict physical health among Japanese
(Miyamoto & Ryff, 2011). Curhan et al.
(2014) further suggested that negative affect
decreased physical health more strongly for
Americans than for Japanese people. These
dualistic vs. dialectical thinking styles are
rooted in the ancient philosophies of each cultural context. Thus, it is not surprising that the
optimal level of happiness differs across cultures (e.g., the ideal level of happiness
in Japan is around 75% satisfaction out of
100% showing that the Japanese pursue a
moderate level of happiness; Cabinet Office,
Government of Japan, 2012).
In a free-association task, many Americans
spontaneously described happiness as a relatively enduring positive state to be pursued personally, whereas many Japanese spontaneously
defined it as an interpersonal condition that is
also fraught with potential negative consequences (Uchida & Kitayama, 2009). Specifically, over 98% of American descriptions of
happiness, but only 67% of Japanese descriptions, were rated as positive. When the obtained
meaning categories in each culture were clustered and examined, three types of descriptions
were commonly observed: general hedonic
states (e.g., joy, excitement, and positive attitude), personal achievement (e.g., getting a
good grade, getting a job), and interpersonal
harmony (e.g., getting along with others, having
a party for a friend). However, in addition to
these cultural similarities, two other clusters of
negative features of happiness were unique to
Japanese responses: transcendental reappraisal
(e.g., letting people avoid reality, ephemerality,
difficulty in identification) and social disruption
(e.g., the envy and jealousy of others, failing to
pay enough attention to ones surroundings).
In cultures that seek harmonious happiness
between the current generation and future generations, Hitokoto and Uchida (2015) proposed
the concept and index of interdependent happiness. A nine-item Interdependent Happiness
Japanese Psychological Association 2015.

Scale (IHS) measures how individuals feel happiness by seeking relationship harmony (e.g., I
make my significant other happy), quiescence
(e.g., although it is quite average, I live a stable
life) and having an ordinary life (e.g., I
believe my life is just as happy as that of others
around me). This concept of interdependent
happiness tries to capture the seeking of collective well-being.
Though the cross-cultural studies presented
here provided initial and important evidence
on cross-cultural differences in happiness, we
should be careful in our interpretations of those
findings. With the exception of longitudinal
large sample studies of the general population,
such as the Midlife in Japan-Midlife in the
United States (MIDJA-MIDUS) study, most
cross-cultural studies have been conducted on
university students, who are not representative
of the wider culture.

The Happiness of the Collective:

Indices for Nations and
Communities
As summarized above, empirical research on
happiness has focused primarily on individual
happiness and cultural variations in individual
happiness. Yet, the question of societal happiness has been of great interest to philosophers,
political theorists, and sociologists alike for centuries. For instance, in The Republic (presumably written around 380 BC), Plato famously
advocated a society governed by a philosopher
king, saying that, Unless communities have
philosophers as kings . . . there can be no end to
political troubles . . . there is no other way for
an individual or a community to achieve happiness (Waterfield, 1993, p. 193). Likewise, in The
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argued that the
happiness of citizens is maximized when the
rulers are eudaimonic (virtuous) people who
can think of what is the best for ordinary citizens (Thomson, 1953). Around the same time
in China, Confucius proposed that a good
society is a harmonious society governed by
virtues such as (Jin; benevolence) and
(Toku; moral goodness). According to

The happiness of individuals and the collective

Confucius, harmony is achieved through order

and hierarchy, and the psychological basis for
order and hierarchy is the natural love that
people have toward their families; as a son
respects his father, so should citizens respect
their king. Fast-forward two centuries, and we
find order and harmony emphasized in Thomas
Hobbes worldview as well. However, according to Hobbes (1651), order and harmony can
be achieved formally by a social contract
between individuals and society wherein individuals relinquish some of their natural rights
for the protection of their lives. Various ideas
about what the ideal society, ranging from ideas
about kingdoms to communism to democracy,
have been proposed over the last 2500 years
(see Oishi, 2012 for review). Philosophers and
political theorists have still not reached a consensus regarding the ideal society, in part
because the existing debates are not always
based on data or concrete outcome measures.
What is a Happy Society?
With the advancement of subjective well-being
research in the 1980s and 1990s, several
researchers started to use the mean level of
self-reported life satisfaction and happiness as a
criterion to evaluate various social factors that
might contribute to the creation of an ideal
society (Diener et al., 1995; Inglehart, Foa,
Peterson, & Welzel, 2008; Veenhoven, 1995).
Such factors in the wider social environment
include both the level and distribution patterns
of wealth, educational levels, religiosity, and
networks of social support. At the level of the
nation, the happiest nations tend to be economically successful (high per capita GDP);
have a climate that is either not harsh or that is
harsh, but is buffered economically (Fischer &
Van de Vliert, 2011); politically liberal (have
more freedom); and culturally individualistic
(Diener et al., 1995; Fisher & Boer, 2011).
The correlation between the wealth of nations
and their mean life satisfaction is around .80
in the Gallup World Polls that sampled over
130 nations, including many African nations
(Deaton, 2008; Diener, Kahneman, Tov, &
Arora, 2010; Oishi & Schimmack, 2010; the correlation tends to be around .50.60 with the

131

World Values Surveys that include few African

nations). Thus, the wealth of a nation is an
important predictor of collective happiness.
Because per capita GDP is highly correlated
with political freedom and cultural individualism, it is unclear at this point whether it is the
economy, or the various amenities that come
with it, that is driving this correlation.
It should also be noted that beyond the
economy, freedom, and individualism, the mean
national level of happiness and life satisfaction
is correlated with other factors, such as religiosity (Inglehart et al., 2008) and social support
(Oishi & Schimmack, 2010). That is, given two
nations of equivalent wealth, the nation with
more religiosity and social support tends to be
happier than the other. Some research also
found that nations with progressive taxation
are happier than nations with less progressive
taxation (Oishi, Schimmack, & Diener, 2012).
This link between progressive taxation and
nation level happiness was explained by citizens satisfaction with public and common
goods (e.g., health care, public transportation,
education).
Up to this point, however, most research has
relied on cross-sectional data, which makes it
difficult to be confident about the causal
mechanisms involved. In particular, as Easterlin
(1974) found, Americans have not become
happier with economic growth. Thus, although
cross-sectionally wealthy nations tend to be
happier than less wealthy nations, there is
little evidence that increasing national wealth
increases citizens happiness (which is considered a paradox). Several reviews of this literature present mixed results, showing that some
nations seem to enjoy an increase in happiness
with economic growth, while other nations
seem to show the Easterlin Paradox (i.e., economic growth does not entail an increase in
happiness, see Diener & Oishi, 2000; Stevenson
& Wolfers, 2008).
Recent research has resolved the Easterlin
Paradox in the U.S. by examining growing
income inequality (Oishi et al., 2011).
Although national wealth increased over time
in the U.S., this increase in wealth went to a
small number of elites. This means that,
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Y. Uchida and S. Oishi

although the U.S. as a nation has become richer

over time, the average American has not.
Indeed, the analysis of the General Social
Surveys data from 1972 to 2008 showed that
income inequality was inversely associated with
the mean level of happiness among Americans
(Oishi et al., 2011). Furthermore, this inverse
correlation was accounted for by lower levels of
perceived fairness and trust in years of great
income inequality. Extending this finding, Oishi
and Kesebir (2015) found that nations that
showed the Easterlin Paradox (e.g., Argentina,
Portugal) experienced growing income inequality, whereas the nations that did not show the
Easterlin Paradox (e.g., France, Italy) did not
experience growing income inequality during
economic growth. Thus, the key to a happy
nation might be economic growth that is
accompanied by relatively equal redistribution
of national wealth among citizens.
In addition to analyses of happy nations,
there has been some research on happy states,
cities, and counties in the U.S. For instance,
happy U.S. states were wealthy and highly
educated (Rentfrow, Mellander, & Florida,
2009). Similarly, happy cities and counties
were wealthy and highly educated (Florida,
Mellander, & Rentfrow, 2013; Lawless & Lucas,
2011). The novel aspect of these findings is the
effect of education. At the level of the individual, more educated people are not significantly happier than less educated people.
Nevertheless, people who live in a city or a
county where most people are highly educated
are happier than those who live in a city or a
county where most people are not. This suggests some kind of emergent property (i.e., the
collective is greater than a simple sum of individuals). It is critical to our future to elucidate
why cities, counties, and states with more educated citizens are happier places to live.
To our knowledge, there has been no
research on the impact of changes in the level
of education on citizens well-being over time.
Just as the effect of wealth is different when
examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally,
the effect of education might be quite different
when examined longitudinally than when it is
examined cross-sectionally. Compared to the
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plethora of research on happy persons, empirical research on happy societies is still rare. It is
important to explore the effect of social indicators (e.g., crime rate, unemployment) over time
in the future.
Finally, group and organization researchers
have explored collective emotions (Barsade &
Gibson, 2012 for review). For instance, sales
teams with happy leaders had higher sales performances than teams with less happy leaders
(George, 1995). Similarly, happy groups (i.e.,
whose individual members had high average
levels of happiness) also performed better in
terms of sales (George, 1995). We are not
aware of any research that directly explores
the ingredients of happy groups, however.
Just as team chemistry enhances team performance (e.g., the 20132014 San Antonio
Spurs), some kinds of group chemistry
(dynamics) might enhance group-level happiness. To this end, laboratory experiments that
explore the origin of happy groups will be
highly valuable.

Future Directions for Happiness

Research
Cross-Temporal Analysis: Historical
Changes in the Meaning of Happiness
The majority of cultural psychological research
on happiness has focused on relatively stable
cultural differences (Diener & Diener, 1995;
Uchida & Kitayama, 2009; Uchida et al., 2008).
Recent research however has shown that
there are important regional as well as temporal variations within a given culture (Plaut,
Markus, & Lachman, 2002; Plaut, Markus,
Treadway, & Fu, 2012). For instance, an understanding of happiness as the consequence of
good luck and fortune prevailed in the U.S. until
around 1920, wherein Americans used happiness to describe lucky occurrences (e.g., a
happy coincidence). Over the last 100 years
or so, however, Americans have ceased to use
the word happiness as such (Oishi et al.,
2013). With urbanization and modernization
(e.g., mass production of the automobile) in the
early 1900s, in the U.S. happiness became

The happiness of individuals and the collective

thought of as something that one can achieve

through effort (see Sonja Lyubomirskys, 2007
popular book entitled The how of happiness:
A new approach to getting the life you want,
emphasis added by authors).
The Globalization Effect
Likewise, cultural change has also affected how
people seek and feel happiness, sometimes
resulting in conflicts between traditional and
modern understandings of success, appropriate
behavior, and social worthiness that have been
imported in via globalization. Globalization,
defined here as pressures that promote a
shift toward de-regulation and flexibility of
the world-wide labor market (Toivonen,
Norasakkunkit, & Uchida, 2011), is one of the
factors used to explain cultural change (Chiu,
Gries, Torelli, & Cheng, 2011; Norasakkunkit &
Uchida, 2011). During its period of rapid economic growth, Japan experienced dramatic lifestyle changes, such as increases in rates of
divorce and living alone (Hamamura, 2012).
Many Japanese left rural areas for big cities to
seek wealth, uniqueness, and personal choice.
Along with such changes, many Japanese
started to seek individualism as a cultural ideal.
At the institutional level, individualism started
to gain prominence in the early 2000s as many
Japanese companies began doing away with the
lifetime system of employment and the agebased salary system, employing in their stead
performance-based salary and staff retention
systems. Around the same time, Japanese
schools also started to emphasize uniqueness.
In general, modernization theorists believe
that free choice has positive psychological
effects because increases in autonomy and
freedom are associated with increases in subjective well-being (Fisher & Boer, 2011;
Inglehart et al., 2008). However, rapid shifts
towards autonomy and freedom have had
negative consequences for the Japanese. For
example, individualism in Japan is more likely
to be interpreted as the opposite of harmoniousness with others and has connotations of
egoism or social isolation (Ogihara, Uchida, &
Kusumi, 2014). As a consequence, Japanese
who seek individualistic goals (i.e., personal

133

achievement) are less happy than those who do

not, in part because individualism reduces the
quality of close relationships among Japanese
people. Such negative effects of individualism
have not been found in the U.S. (Ogihara &
Uchida, 2014).
Measuring Happiness in the Nation, the
Community and the Organization with a
Multilevel Analysis
From the macro-level perspective, happiness is
not only a personal goal, but also a societal one.
Thus, it is important to consider macro-level
factors (e.g., social capital in the community)
that affect the collectives happiness (vs. personal factors that affect the individual) as well
as to differentiate which factors are important
at different levels of the collective (e.g., nation,
neighborhood, work groups). For example,
national-level poverty and unemployment
rates affect individuals psychological wellbeing (Luhmann, Murdoch, & Hawkley,
2015). Recently, several researchers explored
macro-micro interactions using a multilevel
random coefficient model (see Uchida,
Ogihara, & Fukushima, 2015). A multilevel
analysis showed a matching effect between
individuals and the nation or community. For
example, using data obtained from more than
7,000 individuals in 28 nations, Fulmer et al.
(2010) showed that the correlation between
personality and well-being at the individual
level is higher when the personality matches the
characteristics of their respective nation (see
also Oishi, 2000 for similar findings).
For communities and organizations, social
capital is important for ensuring the well-being
of its members, particularly for elders (Poulin &
Haase, 2015). Social capital in the community
strengthens the connection between personal
well-being and the judgment of other peoples
well-being in the community. A series of studies
with multilevel analyses in Japan found that
general trust contributed to well-being only at
the individual level (Fukushima, Yoshikawa,
Saizen, & Kobayashi, 2012), whereas social
capital within the community (trust for people
in the neighborhood) contributed to well-being
at both the individual and community levels.
Japanese Psychological Association 2015.

134

Y. Uchida and S. Oishi

These results suggest that individual well-being

is constructed in part through the ability to
determine who is trustworthy (Yamagishi &
Yamagishi, 1994), whereas macro-level wellbeing is constructed through shared experiences of social capital among the community.
In future studies, it will be important to elucidate what kind of social capital (e.g., bridging
vs. bonding) makes people happy in each cultural condition. For example, general trust was
associated with happiness across 25 European
Nations. However, the subtypes of social capital
(e.g., informal channels, such as meeting colleagues) were differentially associated with
happiness across Europe (Rodrguez-Pose &
von Berlepsch, 2014). From the multi-level perspective, it is possible to consider the type of
social capital that serves different psychological
functions at different levels of analysis. People
live in multi-layered cultures nested within
each other, from national culture as a larger
macro-level culture, to state/prefecture
as mid-level culture, to neighborhood/
community or organization and family as
a micro-level culture. So far, cultural psychology has focused on national comparisons, such
as U.S. vs. Japan. However, it is important to
analyze which level of culture exerts the strongest influence.This is important especially when
we think about community-level happiness. For
example, research in Korea found that the
household level is a more important factor in
explaining individual happiness than the
neighborhood-level context (Han, 2015).
Additionally, companies also seek to create
happiness for their employees and customers.
There are many organizational factors that
could affect the happiness of employees,
ranging from the organizational culture, to
pay and promotion scales, to the number of
paid holidays, to staff turn-over rates. These
organization-level effects might be further
moderated by the business sector (e.g., finance
vs. entertainment), region, and nation in which
they reside (Klein & Kozlowski, 2000).
Happiness and Public Policies
Over the last decade, subjective well-being has
become a major concern for public policy Japanese Psychological Association 2015.

makers all over the world as they attempt to

measure happiness with the goal of increasing
it, and to create ranks of national happiness in
order to contextualize domestic levels. For
example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released
the Better Life Index and reported crossnational differences (via rankings) in 11 aspects
of life that are supposed to contribute to citizens well-being. Additionally, several countries, such as the U.K., France, Germany, and
Bhutan, have attempted to measure the subjective well-being and happiness of their citizens.
Such use of citizens self-reports of wellbeing for policy-making has been called into
question because self-reports are not always
accurate. For a long time, economic indicators,
such as GDP, have been the main indices of the
health of nations. However, recent evidence
suggests that self-reported well-being (e.g., life
satisfaction, happiness) is an adequate reflection of the objective financial/societal conditions of the nation, as well as individuals
objective living conditions (such as unemployment and divorce) (Oishi & Diener, 2014a),
thus opening up the possibility of using selfreported well-being for evaluating and creating
public policies.
Bhutan is famous for its Gross National Happiness (GNH) index and has promoted its use
for policy-making. The GNH is unique, not only
in its assessment criteria, but also its consequences, as the Bhutanese government makes
important policy decisions with the goal of
increasing the GNH. The mission of the Bhutanese government (the GNH commission) is to
increase the GNH through decreasing the
insufficiencies of not-yet-happy people (Ura,
Alkire, Zangmo, & Wangdi, 2012, p. 1).
In Japan, the government cabinet office commissioned large-scale happiness studies from
2010 to 2013. The committee proposed creating
a Happiness Index that includes both subjective
and objective measurements of well-being.
There was a lot of discussion regarding such
issues as: (a) whether or not to make a single
index of well-being and establish it as a
goal for a nation; and (b) how to integrate
subjective (psychological) measurements and

The happiness of individuals and the collective

an objective well-being index (i.e., economic

conditions). For some members, objective measurements seem trustworthy while subjective
measures seem unreliable. Thanks to multiple
psychological studies showing the reliability of
subjective measurements, however, the committee concluded that multidimensional indicators should be developed (to show multiple
aspects of well-being) with both subjective and
objective measures to identify which aspects of
society need improvement. In addition, the
committee decided to identify what factors
constitute Japanese well-being by considering
both cross-national comparisons and withincultural differences (such as examining inequality within Japanese society). The committee was
concerned that end users might focus on the
cross-cultural or inter-prefectural level ranking,
although the commission wanted to focus on
the policy-related use (i.e., to improve the societal conditions by understanding what makes
people happy and unhappy). Moreover, the
commission would like to promote a new
concept of well-being that is not solely comprised of seeking individual happiness in the
present, but one that also includes seeking a
collective level of happiness to achieve a
sustainable society. The national government
commission has closed, but municipal local governments, such as the Arakawa district in Tokyo
and Kyotango city in Kyoto prefecture, are also
developing their own well-being indices for
policy-making.
When a national government seeks to use a
happiness index, the purpose is to increase its
score and its happiness ranking in the world.
However, we should be cautious in our interpretations of the rankings, as mean happiness
scores can be skewed by response biases and/or
the reference group effects. For example, the
mean score of happiness in Japan is lower than
other industrialized nations (Diener & Diener,
1995; Diener et al., 1995; Veenhoven, 2010).
But, as noted above, happiness in Japan sometimes has negative connotations, such as
making others jealous and reducing motivations for self-improvement (Uchida &
Kitayama, 2009). Furthermore, for many Japanese people, optimal happiness is not a state of

135

complete happiness; rather, many prefer a

moderate level of happiness (Cabinet Office,
Government of Japan, 2012). Thus, this low
happiness score in Japan might be partly due to
its being a balance-oriented concept. In addition, it should be noted that happiness rankings
change dramatically depending on the specific
measures used. For instance, when the index is
based on Cantrils ladder scale, Scandinavian
nations (e.g., Norway) typically top the list and
score substantially higher than Central and
South American nations (e.g., Costa Rica, Venezuela). However, when the index is based on
the frequency of positive emotions, Central and
South American nations typically top the list,
sometimes ahead of wealthy European nations.
Finally, when the index is based on having
a meaning or purpose in life, economically
impoverished nations, such as Mozambique and
Togo, top the list, while wealthy European and
Asian nations are at the bottom (Oishi &
Diener, 2014b). Thus, it is important to identify
the factors that predict and improve citizens
happiness for each nation using longitudinal
data, rather than being overly concerned about
happiness rankings per se.

Conclusion and Future

Perspectives
The aims of the present article were to review
the validity of the measures of individual and
collective happiness and to explicate the role of
culture in understanding the long-term happiness and life satisfaction of individuals. As
research on individuals long-term happiness
and life satisfaction accumulates with valid and
reliable measures, empirical studies have also
begun to examine the long-term happiness and
life satisfaction of groups. In addition, we discussed the possibility and importance of studying the happiness of collectives. Happiness
researchers have not validated any collectivelevel measures of happiness beyond the aggregate measure of subjective well-being. In the
future, the valid measure of macro or collectivelevel measures, such as an integrating index of
subjective and objective measures, should be
devised.
Japanese Psychological Association 2015.

136

Y. Uchida and S. Oishi

We then discussed future directions for happiness research, proposing several methodological and theoretical areas, such as crosstemporal analyses and multi-level analysis, to
identify the units of culture that affect happiness. Finally, we proposed possibilities for how
nations and communities can utilize happiness
research especially for public policy-making.
Most research on happiness is concerned
with the factors or conditions that lead to happiness and how to create policies that protect
individual rights to seek personal happiness.
However, we must also look at how factors that
facilitate personal happiness interact with, and
sometimes interfere with, collective happiness.
For example, while a safe environment and a
certain level of economic welfare are important
to both personal and collective happiness,
seeking personal happiness in a comfortable
life can also lead to social dilemmas, such as the
tragedy of commons (see Horike, 2013 for
sustainability- and happiness-related arguments). For instance, for some individuals the
pursuit of personal happiness might include
taking long showers. During a drought,
however, if everyone sought to increase their
happiness with long showers, the community at
large would surely suffer. Situations like this
place the pursuit of personal happiness in diametric opposition to collective happiness. Conversely, a shared tragedy can sometimes unite a
community or nation, thus elevating personal
happiness. In Japan, for example, after the
Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11,
2011, many people in non-afflicted areas
re-evaluated their everyday lives and thus
experienced an increase in happiness (Uchida,
Takahashi, & Kawahara, 2014), suggesting that
the evaluation of ordinary life conditions is
sometimes difficult, and that in times of peace,
people might equate happiness with pleasantness. If the pursuit of personal happiness can
indeed produce the tragedy of commons, it is
important to discern which types of this pursuit
are damaging and which are benign to public
happiness.
In order to advance our understanding of
sustainable happiness (the type of personal
happiness that does not erode collective happi Japanese Psychological Association 2015.

ness), collaborative work with other social/

natural scientists, such as economists,
environmental scientists, and political scientists,
is indispensable. Bhutans initiative report
(New Development Paradigm Initiative, 2014),
for example, was constructed thanks to collaborative networks of psychologists, ecologists,
economists, and political scientists. The initiative report declared that, Now more than ever,
the need for a different development approach
is highlighted in ecological, social, and economic crises: ecosystem degradation, potentially catastrophic climate change, excessive
consumption of the affluent and extreme
poverty on the other end, and growing inequalities both between and within nations. Underlying all these crises is the lack of a holistic view
that would focus on causes instead of symptoms, and the inadequacy of the architecture of
global governance to address these problems
. . . To properly assess well-being outcomes, a
more integrated measurement system that balances the ecological, social, economic and cultural dimensions of development is needed
(New Development Paradigm Initiative, 2014,
p. V11). As the science of well-being and happiness matures, it is critical to consider the wellbeing of both individuals and the collective. To
this end, the macro-micro perspective promoted here will be useful.

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(Received April 1, 2015; accepted September 5, 2015)

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