Social Preferences and Well-Being: Theory and Evidence

Iwasaki, Masaki (2022): Social Preferences and Well-Being: Theory and Evidence.

Abstract

The education systems of many countries emphasize the development of prosocial preferences. Clarifying how these preferences are related to well-being is therefore essential. Although many studies have shown that particular prosocial behaviors increase subjective well-being, it is unclear whether prosocial preferences rather than prosocial behaviors are associated with greater well-being. This study presents a model in which differences in social preferences explain differences in subjective well-being. Then, using survey data from the United States, it finds an association between social preferences and well-being. We measured social preferences using the Slider Measure of social value orientation to evaluate prosociality as a continuous variable. Using the Pemberton Happiness Index, we also measured subjective well-being in terms of the multiple dimensions of general well-being, hedonic well-being, eudaimonic well-being, social well-being, and experienced well-being. Regression analysis revealed that the effect sizes of social value orientation on hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being were 0.19 and 0.15, respectively, which are comparable to the effect sizes of parenthood, income, and education.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Social preferences, Well-being, Social value orientation, Prosociality, Happiness
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A13 - Relation of Economics to Social Values; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D64 - Altruism ; Philanthropy; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being

References

Ackermann, K. A., Fleiß, J., & Murphy, R. O. (2016). Reciprocity as an individual difference. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 60(2), 340–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002714541854

Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9267-5

Boenigk, S., & Mayr, M. L. (2016). The happiness of giving: evidence from the German socioeconomic panel that happier people are more generous. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(5), 1825–1846. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9672-2

Böhm, R., Fleiß, J., & Rybnicek, R. (2021). On the stability of social preferences in inter-group conflict: a lab-in-the-field panel study. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 65(6), 1215–1248. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002721994080

Boyce, C. J., Brown, G. D. A., & Moore, S. C. (2010). Money and happiness: rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 21(4), 471–475. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610362671

Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393980

Cuñado, J., & de Gracia, F. P. (2012). Does education affect happiness? Evidence for Spain. Social Indicators Research, 108(1), 185–196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9874-x

Decancq, K., Fleurbaey, M., & Schokkaert, E. (2017). Wellbeing inequality and preference heterogeneity. Economica, 84(334), 210–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12231

Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13

Fehr, E., & Krajbich, I. (2014). Chapter 11—social preferences and the brain. In P. W. Glimcher & E. Fehr (Eds.), Neuroeconomics (Second Edition) (pp. 193–218). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-416008-8.00011-5

Fehr, E., & Schmidt, K. M. (1999). A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3), 817–868. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556151

FitzRoy, F. R., & Nolan, M. A. (2022). Income status and life satisfaction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(1), 233–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00397-y

Hervás, G., & Vázquez, C. (2013). Construction and validation of a measure of integrative well-being in seven languages: The Pemberton Happiness Index. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 11(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-66

Kahneman, D., & Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: Two perspectives on life. In F. A. Huppert, N. Baylis, & B. Keverne (Eds.), The Science of Well-Being (pp. 284–305). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567523.003.0011

Keyes, C. L. M. (1998). Social well-being. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(2), 121–140. https://doi.org/10.2307/2787065

Lawton, R. N., Gramatki, I., Watt, W., & Fujiwara, D. (2021). Does volunteering make us happier, or are happier people more likely to volunteer? Addressing the problem of reverse causality when estimating the wellbeing impacts of volunteering. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(2), 599–624. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00242-8

McClintock, C. G., & Allison, S. T. (1989). Social value orientation and helping behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 19(4), 353–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1989.tb00060.x

Meier, S., & Stutzer, A. (2008). Is volunteering rewarding in itself? Economica, 75(297), 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2007.00597.x

Messick, D. M., & McClintock, C. G. (1968). Motivational bases of choice in experimental games. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(68)90046-2

Murphy, R. O., & Ackermann, K. A. (2014). Social value orientation: theoretical and measurement issues in the study of social preferences. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(1), 13–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868313501745

Murphy, R. O., Ackermann, K. A., & Handgraaf, M. J. J. (2011). Measuring social value orientation. Judgment and Decision Making, 6(8), 771–781. http://journal.sjdm.org/11/m25/m25.html

Napier, J. L., & Jost, J. T. (2008). Why are conservatives happier than liberals? Psychological Science, 19(6), 565–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02124.x

Nikolaev, B. (2018). Does higher education increase hedonic and eudaimonic happiness? Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(2), 483–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9833-y

Oliver, A. (2017). Distinguishing between experienced utility and remembered utility. Public Health Ethics, 10(2), 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phw014

Onraet, E., Van Assche, J., Roets, A., Haesevoets, T., & Van Hiel, A. (2017). The happiness gap between conservatives and liberals depends on country-level threat: a worldwide multilevel study. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(1), 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616662125

Pollmann-Schult, M. (2014). Parenthood and life satisfaction: why don’t children make people happy? Journal of Marriage and Family, 76(2), 319–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12095

Radó, M. K. (2020). Tracking the effects of parenthood on subjective well-being: evidence from hungary. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(6), 2069–2094. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00166-y

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141

Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069

Shahrier, S., Kotani, K., & Kakinaka, M. (2017). Religiosity may not be a panacea: Importance of prosociality to maintain humanitarian donations. In Working Papers (SDES-2017-23; Working Papers). Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management. https://ideas.repec.org/p/kch/wpaper/sdes-2017-23.html

Steger, M. F., Kashdan, T. B., & Oishi, S. (2008). Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(1), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.03.004

U.S. Census Bureau. (2017). Was median household income in 2016 the highest median household income ever reported from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement? https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2017/09/was_median_household.html

Van Doesum, N. J., Murphy, R. O., Gallucci, M., Aharonov-Majar, E., Athenstaedt, U., Au, W. T., Bai, L., Böhm, R., Bovina, I., Buchan, N. R., Chen, X.-P., Dumont, K. B., Engelmann, J. B., Eriksson, K., Euh, H., Fiedler, S., Friesen, J., Gächter, S., Garcia, C., … Lange, P. A. M. V. (2021). Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(35). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023846118

Van Lange, P. A. M., Bekkers, R., Schuyt, T. N. M., & Vugt, M. V. (2007). From games to giving: social value orientation predicts donations to noble causes. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 29(4), 375–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973530701665223

Van Lange, P. A. M., Schippers, M., & Balliet, D. (2011). Who volunteers in psychology experiments? An empirical review of prosocial motivation in volunteering. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(3), 279–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.05.038

Van Lange, P. A. M., & Semin-Goossens, A. (1998). The boundaries of reciprocal cooperation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 28(5), 847–854. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199809/10)28:5<847::AID-EJSP886>3.0.CO;2-L

Von Neumann, J., & Morgenstern, O. (1944). Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton University Press.

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1063