Yulia A. Afanasyeva’s scientific contributions

Previous research has often demonstrated that liberal values and democratic regimes are associated with higher levels of subjective well-being (SWB). However, consistent results are only found at the country level, while at the individual level the relationship between values, democracy, and SWB is not as clear. This article analyzes recent data from 86 countries and shows that individual SWB depends on whether one’s values match the country’s predominant values and political system. In authoritarian countries, those with more conservative values tend to exhibit higher levels of SWB, reaching a level of happiness comparable to that of an average person in a typical democracy. Conversely, their liberal-minded compatriots often report significantly lower levels of SWB. In democracies, people with more liberal values tend to have higher SWB than do conservatives, although this difference is not as robust as in autocracies. This study emphasizes the importance of political context in the relationship between liberal values and SWB.

Social sciences pay a great deal of attention to the effects of one’s (dis)similarity with one’s environment. Research of values is one aspect of these studies, where values are most abstracted individual goals which help one evaluate various phenomena as either good or bad. Most often, scholars focus on similarities and conclude that being similar to one’s environment makes one happier and self-confident and results in better relations with other people. There are relatively few studies that focus on the effects of dissimilarities, which leaves an opportunity for new studies. Based on the most recent waves of the World Value Survey and European Value Study (N = 122,224), this paper investigates whether one’s difference in Welzel’s emancipative value index (EVI) from the mean country level affect individual subjective well-being (SWB). Our analysis suggests that this effect depends on (1) the sign of the difference and (2) the country mean EVI. In low-EVI countries people with lower levels of EVI tend to be happier than other people in their country. There is no effect in high-EVI countries. Furthermore, high levels of mean country EVI is a stronger predictor of happiness than are individual differences.