Life Satisfaction and the Human Development Index Across the World. (February 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yin, Remi; Lepinteur, Anthony; Clark, Andrew E.; D'Ambrosio, Conchita
• Other Names: Krys Kuba guest-editor.; Dominguez-Espinosa Alejandra guest-editor.; Uchida Yukiko guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of cross-cultural psychology. Volume 54:Number 2(2023)
• Page Start: 269
• Page End: 282
• Publication Date: 2023-02
• Subjects: Human Development Index -- subjective well-being -- Gallup World Poll -- country groups; Ethnopsychology -- Periodicals; 155.805
• DOI: 10.1177/00220221211044784
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0221

Abstract

We use annual data on over 150 countries between 2005 and 2018 to look at the relationship between subjective well-being (both cognitive and affective) and the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI appears to be more closely related to cognitive than affective well-being. We also consider the relationships between the three HDI components (the Income, Health, and Education Indices) and well-being, and find that, on average, the Income Index has the strongest predictive power. Importantly, we find that the three HDI components only matter equally in Western and rich countries. Our analysis contributes to the discussion about cultural sensitivity in paradigms of societal development in two ways. We first show that differences in preferences toward development aims exist. Second, we propose a weighting procedure for a culturally-sensitive version of the HDI.