Incheol Choi’s research while affiliated with Seoul National University and other places

Previous research indicates that individuals from lower social class backgrounds are prone to experiencing lower levels of subjective well-being (SWB). In the present research, we sought to examine the role of essentialist beliefs about happiness (EBH) in moderating the strength of the association between social class and SWB. We carried out investigations in four samples recruited from South Korea (total N = 6,149). In Studies 1 A, 1B, and 2, we found that the endorsement of nonessentialist (vs. essentialist) beliefs about happiness—the belief that happiness can be cultivated with effort and is not immutable or biologically determined—attenuated class-based disparities in SWB. In (preregistered) Study 3, we manipulated EBH and found a similar pattern of results. Together, our findings suggest that nonessentialist beliefs can buffer individuals of lower social class backgrounds against poor SWB, indicating that the happiness gap between the upper and lower social strata of society is not inevitable.

Perceived isolation (i.e., loneliness) has been linked to an immune response gene profile known as the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), but little is known about how positive social relations might affect human genome function. We analyzed two studies of Korean adults to determine whether the positive qualities of an individual's general social relations with others (warmth, satisfaction, and trust; as measured by the Positive Relations with Others [PRWO] subscale of the The Ryff Scales of Psychological Well‐being) might be inversely associated with CTRA gene expression. In Study 1 (53 participants, mean age = 72 years, 47% female), PRWO were significantly associated with reduced CTRA profiles, even after controlling for loneliness. Similarly, in Study 2 (152 participants, mean age = 45 years, 50% female), PRWO were significantly associated with reduced CTRA profiles, particularly in the context of higher collectivism. These findings suggest that gene regulatory correlates of social flourishing extend beyond the absence of loneliness, and may contribute to health advantages associated with social well‐being. Loneliness and social flourishing may not simply represent opposite ends of a single continuum but rather function as related yet distinct processes affecting human molecular well‐being.

Recent studies indicate a robust relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and exercise behavior. Past research has successfully uncovered various mechanisms through which exercise boosts SWB. However, little is known about how SWB influences exercise. The present research proposes that SWB affects individuals’ beliefs about exercise benefits, which in turn impact their exercise behavior. In particular, we hypothesize that happier individuals believe in both the psychosocial benefits (i.e., benefiting one’s emotional, cognitive, and social health) and physical benefits of exercise more than less happy individuals, with a larger gap in psychosocial benefits (Hypothesis 1). Furthermore, we hypothesize that beliefs about psychosocial (vs. physical) benefits play a more significant mediating role in the relationship between happiness and exercise (Hypothesis 2). We tested the hypotheses across three studies involving 997 participants from the United States and South Korea. Studies 1 and 2 developed and validated a scale to measure both the psychosocial and physical benefits of exercise. Study 3 tested and confirmed the mediation hypothesis. The findings suggest that happier individuals exercise more, primarily because they perceive psychosocial benefits more. We discuss the implications, limitations, and potential avenues for future research.

Economic inequality is a key challenge of our time. Prior research investigating the relationship between economic inequality and mental health remains inconclusive. While some studies have demonstrated a negative relationship, others have found no significant association. The present study addresses these existing inconsistencies in the literature by examining the relationship between perceptions of (growing) economic inequality and psychological distress in two East Asian countries—China and South Korea. Conducting secondary data analyses, we consistently find that individuals’ subjective experience of increasing economic inequality is associated with them reporting greater psychological distress. We find that this subjective experience is larger than the effect of objective economic inequality as measured using GINI coefficients. Amongst objective measures of economic inequality, we find that wealth inequality – Housing Price GINI – is a better predictor of psychological distress compared to income inequality – Income GINI –, presumably, because that is what is visible in people’s immediate environments. Our research contributes to a better understanding of the psychology of economic inequality highlighting the importance of subjective and context-specific appraisals in understanding the effects of economic inequality.

Little research has examined the role of social class in the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental well-being. This 4-year longitudinal study in South Korea (N = 86,872; 875,967 responses) assessed well-being before (January 2019 to January 2020) and during (January 2020 to January 2023) the COVID-19 pandemic to determine whether change in well-being during this period differed by social class. We expanded the investigation to consider transitions in social class, social distancing measures, and the mechanisms underlying well-being changes according to social class during the pandemic. In particular, we assessed the moderating effects of social class on within-person changes in well-being using conducting multilevel modeling-based analyses in four approaches. First, we found that, while higher-class individuals maintained an average well-being that was higher than that of lower-class individuals, they also experienced a steeper decline in well-being over the course of the pandemic. Relative to their pre-COVID-19 levels, they experienced a significant decrease in well-being in the first, second, and third years of COVID-19, showing no sign of recovery until the pandemic neared its end. Second, this pattern persisted without regard for critical social class transitions following the pandemic: individuals remaining in the higher class during both the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods experienced significant declines in well-being relative to baseline. Third, higher-class individuals faced larger difficulties in maintaining their well-being, particularly with respect to social distancing measures, while the well-being of lower-class individuals was less affected. Fourth, perceived changes in daily life mediated observed class difference in well-being declines, showing that higher-class individuals experienced greater changes in their daily lives due to COVID-19 than lower-class individuals did, resulting in greater declines in well-being. Taken together, these findings indicate that COVID-19 transformed components of life that are essential for the psychological health of the well-off, providing novel insights into the significant power of social class in the experiences of changes in well-being, going beyond the absolute gap that has been well-established by cross-sectional studies. This indicates the need for class-targeted interventions and policies to support well-being across all socioeconomic strata in future crises.

Positive anticipatory experiences are key to daily well-being. However, the brain’s functional architecture underlying real-world positive anticipatory experiences and well-being remains unexplored. In the present study, we combined an ecological momentary assessment and resting-state functional neuroimaging to identify the neural predictors of real-world positive anticipatory experiences and explore their relationships with subjective well-being (SWB). With a model-based approach, we quantified participants’ accuracy in predicting positive events and the degree to which participants’ affective states were influenced by the positive anticipation. We found that individuals with higher accuracy in predicting upcoming positive events showed greater SWB, and this relationship was mediated by greater positive anticipatory feelings. Importantly, functional connectivity of the dorsal and ventral striatal-hippocampal networks significantly predicted the accuracy and positive anticipatory feelings, respectively. These functional networks were further predictive of SWB. Our findings provide novel and ecologically valid evidence that the interplay between neural systems for reward-processing and memory plays an important role in real-life positive anticipatory experiences and everyday SWB.

The present research examines whether and how lay intuitive theory regarding the interconnectedness of the mind and body, which we term mind–body correspondence (MBC), predicts engagement in health behaviors. Specifically, we hypothesised that MBC would strengthen mind influences the body (MIB) and body influences the mind (BIM) beliefs, which would in turn increase mental and physical health behaviors, respectively. We tested associations among MBC (independent variable), MIB and BIM beliefs (proposed mediators), and mental and physical health behaviors (dependent variables) using correlational designs in Studies 1a to 1c. Results revealed positive associations between MBC and (1) MIB and BIM and (2) mental and physical health behaviors, as well as between MIB and mental health behaviors and between BIM and physical health behaviors. We then tested the full model in Study 2 with an experimental manipulation of MBC and in Study 3 with a two‐wave longitudinal design. Both studies revealed significant indirect effects of MBC on mental health behaviors via MIB and on physical health behaviors via BIM. Together, our findings suggest that one can encourage mental health behaviors by emphasizing the mind‐to‐body connection and physical health behaviors by highlighting the body‐to‐mind connection.

In the present work, we addressed the relationship between parental leave policies and social norms. Using a pre‐registered, cross‐national approach, we examined the relationship between parental leave policies and the perception of social norms for the gender division of childcare. In this study, 19,259 students (11,924 women) from 48 countries indicated the degree to which they believe childcare is (descriptive norm) and should be (prescriptive norm) equally divided among mothers and fathers. Policies were primarily operationalized as the existence of parental leave options in the respective country. The descriptive and prescriptive norms of equal division of childcare were stronger when parental leave was available in a country – also when controlling for potential confounding variables. Moreover, analyses of time since policy change suggested that policy change may initially affect prescriptive norms and then descriptive norms at a later point. However, due to the cross‐sectional nature of the data, drawing causal inferences is difficult.

People hold different beliefs about the changeability of happiness. Some believe that happiness is biologically predetermined and thus unchangeable (essentialist beliefs), while others believe that it is malleable and can be changed (non-essentialist beliefs). Do these beliefs have a tangible impact on how individuals actually experience well-being? Here, we predict and empirically demonstrate that endorsing essentialist beliefs about happiness (EBH) can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy that buffers the changes in subjective well-being (SWB) following life events. Through a series of four studies utilizing diverse methodologies (total N = 7,364), we provide converging evidence that happiness essentialists, compared to non-essentialists, experience relatively stable levels of SWB following life events, particularly negative ones. We find that this pattern also emerges when people recall past events or anticipate hypothetical or impending future events. Together, happiness essentialism extends beyond mere belief and has real-world implications for how individuals experience fluctuations in SWB.

In spite of extensive research that links the absence of pain with happiness, it remains puzzling why possessing beliefs equating the absence of pain with happiness (negative hedonic beliefs) undermine experienced happiness and what underlying mechanisms can explain this paradox. We conducted five studies to address these questions. The participants who had more negative hedonic beliefs exhibited decreased well-being, including subjective well-being and psychological well-being, alongside heightened depression and physical symptoms (Study 1a), an effect that persisted after controlling for behavioral inhibition/activation systems (Study 1b). Hypersensitivity to negative experiences, which reflects a reduced inclination to engage in negative experiences, even when positives exist, mediated the links between negative hedonic beliefs and poor well-being both cross-sectionally (Study 2) and longitudinally (Study 3). Moreover, the propensity to avoid negative experiences was observed in behavioral intention, primarily due to heightened anticipated negative affect when an event was manipulated to include negative aspects (Study 4). Together, the effort to eliminate negative experiences, as adhered to by individuals with negative hedonic beliefs, tends to prevent them from recognizing the potential benefits of unpleasant experiences, inadvertently depriving themselves of opportunities for the enhancement of their well-being.