Cigna announces expanded relationship with Happify Health to support the emotional health of millions of its members
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![DOES HAPPINESS TRANSCEND CULTURE? EMOTIONS WORLDWIDE More than 70% of people worldwide smiled, experienced a lot of joy, or laughed a lot the day before being surveyed. [DESIGNER: MAKE THIS SMALL FONT:] —Gallup 2017 Global Emotions Report 50% of people worldwide said they learned or did something interesting the day before. —Gallup WHAT DOES HAPPINESS MEAN TO YOU? Feeling Fortunate Researchers have found that concepts of happiness differ by country and culture. The idea of luck as part of happiness was at least partially present for 80% of the nations studied. [ART: maybe this could be some sort of map or chart?] Countries that consider fortune to be an element of happiness include: China Japan South Korea Germany France Poland Russia Countries that don’t consider luck to be part of happiness include: United States Spain Argentina Ecuador India Kenya Lost in Translation Even within the same language, definitions differ. In Australian English, “happiness” contains an element of luck but in American English it doesn’t. Similarly, in Guatemalan Spanish, “happiness” includes luck but in Spanish, Argentine and Ecuadorian Spanish, it doesn’t. WHERE WE DIFFER Priorities Across Time Zones • People from Western cultures tend to put a high priority on maximizing happiness and minimizing sadness. • Those from non-Western cultures tend to place more value on harmony and conformity than on individual happiness. Emotion and Environment In Western or individualist culture, intense (known as “high arousal”) emotions are valued and promoted more than quieter (“low arousal”) emotions, whereas in Eastern or collectivist cultures, the opposite is true. Perhaps predictably, Westerners experience intense emotions more than quiet ones and Easterners experience and prefer low-arousal emotions. Go with the Cultural Flow Past studies have shown that Chinese people tend to feel mixed emotions (positive and negative) toward certain events, while Americans are more likely to feel just one or the other. A recent report determined that how we <i>want</i> to feel shapes how we <i>do</i> feel, so we tend to go with our cultural norms. EMPATHY ACROSS CULTURES According to a 2017 study out of Michigan State University, the countries that rank highest in empathy are: 1. Ecuador 2. Saudi Arabia 3. Peru 4. Denmark 5. United Arab Emirates The U.S. came in at number 7. Ranking lowest in empathy are: 1. Lithuania 2. Venezuela 3. Estonia 4. Poland 5. Bulgaria 7 of the 10 least empathetic countries were in Eastern Europe. HEALTHY AND HAPPY? Our Heart Is Not Always In It Culture affects health ramifications too: In one study, a positive outlook resulted in a healthier cardiovascular lipid profile for Americans, but not for Japanese. Optimistic Americans Live Longer A study of American women showed that optimism decreased risk of death from such causes as heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Optimistic Brits May Not But a similar study in England showed that such signs of well-being do not appear to affect mortality for Brits. MORE ALIKE THAN WE KNOW Knowing Happiness When We See It Of anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, happiness was the most accurately recognized expression by people from 37 different countries who participated in a study. What Does Happy Look Like? In the same study from 37 countries across 5 continents, people displayed similar behavior—smiling and laughing—when happy. Positively Outgoing When people felt or acted more extroverted, they reported more positive emotions in daily situations. This was true across cultures, in the U.S., Venezuela, China, the Philippines and Japan. Favoring Choice A study showed that free will and happiness are linked not only in the U.S. but also among Chinese teens. SOURCES Bakalar, N. (2016) Stay Optimistic, Live Longer? New York Times. Ching, C. et al.( 2014) The manifestation of traits in everyday behavior and affect: A five-culture study. Journal of Research in Personality. Chopik, W. et al. (2016) Differences in Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking Across 63 Countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Gallup, Global Emotions Report (2017) Joshanloo, M.; Weijers, D. (2014) Aversion to Happiness Across Cultures: A Review of Where and Why People are Averse to Happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies. Li, C. et al. (2017) The Freedom to Pursue Happiness: Belief in Free Will Predicts Life Satisfaction and Positive Affect among Chinese Adolescents. Frontiers in Psychology Lim, N. (2016) Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level between the East and the West. Integrative Medicine Research. Liu, B. et al. (2016) Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study. The Lancet. Oishi, S. et al. (2013) Concepts of Happiness Across Time and Cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Scherer, K. R. (1997). The role of culture in emotion-antecedent appraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Scherer, K. R.; Wallbott, H. G. (1994). Evidence for universality and cultural variation of differential emotion response patterning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Sims, T., Tsai, J. L., Jiang, D., Wang, Y., Fung, H. H., & Zhang, X. (2015). Wanting to maximize the positive and minimize the negative: Implications for mixed affective experience in American and Chinese contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Yoo, J. et al. (2017) Linking Positive Affect to Blood Lipids: A Cultural Perspective. Psychological Science.](https://hpf-happify-marty-prod-user-uploads.happify.com/cms_uploads/en_US/img/happifiers/Happiness-across-cultures_541d329.png)