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Analyses of the 2020 combined European and World Values Surveys (124,958 respondents from 77 countries) found that people who believed in God tended to be happier, more satisfied with lives, and healthier than non-believers. Believers trusted people close to them (e.g., neighbors) more than non-believers, although non-believers tended to trust people in general and trust people from other countries more than believers. Non-believers tended to be more ideologically prosocial than non-believers (e.g., belonging to an environmental organization, advocating freedom of speech vs. control). Such differences were stronger in countries in which there were more vs fewer believers. Moreover, these differences remained after controlling for individual differences in sex, age, education, income, and left–right political orientation.

Analyses of the 2020 combined European and World Values Surveys (124,958 respondents from 77 countries) found that people who believed in God tended to be happier, more satisfied with lives, and healthier than non-believers. Believers trusted people close to them (e.g., neighbors) more than non-believers, although non-believers tended to trust people in general and trust people from other countries more than believers. Non-believers tended to be more ideologically prosocial than non-believers (e.g., belonging to an environmental organization, advocating freedom of speech vs. control). Such differences were stronger in countries in which there were more vs fewer believers. Moreover, these differences remained after controlling for individual differences in sex, age, education, income, and left-right political orientation.

An increasing body of research suggests that emerging adults living in Western societies are becoming more individualistic and such increases in individualism are associated with reduced well-being. The present study examined relationships between well-being and individualism and collectivism among 1906 emerging adults in the US, aged 18–25. We measured individualism and collectivism distinguishing horizontal and vertical dimensions of these constructs, and we measured well-being in terms of depression, anxiety, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and neuroticism. Regression analyses found that individualism was negatively related to well-being, and these relationships varied somewhat between horizontal and vertical individualism. Horizontal collectivism was positively related to all measures of well-being, and vertical collectivism was positively related to three measures. These findings increase our understanding of the roles individualism and collectivism play in the psychological well-being of emerging adults, including the importance of distinguishing horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism.

AbstractThe present study examined the relations between individuals' social lives and the risks they perceived in being intimate with others. Participants maintained a variant of the Rochester Interaction Record (Wheeler & Nezlek, 1977) and completed the Risk in Intimacy Inventory (Pilkington & Richardson, 1988). The results indicated that, compared to people who perceived less risk, people who perceived more risk in intimacy had less rewarding social lives on measures of socio‐emotional and socio‐instrumental dimensions of interaction. Risk in intimacy concerns were particularly salient for women in their interactions with the opposite sex and for men in their interactions with the same sex. In addition, the statistical associations between perceptions of risk in intimacy and characteristics of interactions within close opposite‐sex personal relationships varied as a function of participants' sex and the nature of this personal relationship.

This study examined relationships between self-construal and the quality of daily interactions of three ethnic minority groups in Europe: ethnic Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands and Chechens in Poland. They described the social interactions they had for 2 weeks and they completed measures of independent and interdependent self-construal. We expected that, regardless of whether individuals' self-construals match with prevailing construals in the host society, interdependent self-construal would be positively related to the quality of intra- and interethnic contact. The results largely confirmed this expectation. Across the two samples, participants who were higher in interdependent self-construal had more positive (and less negative) interactions than participants who were lower in interdependent self-construal. Some of these relationships varied as a function of whether or not a majority group member was present, however. Persons with a more interdependent construal of self felt more liked, respected, accepted, and free to express opinion during interactions in which a majority group member was present, whereas no such relationships were found for intra-ethnic interactions. There were very few relationships between independent self-construal and the quality of either intra- or interethnic contact. The results suggest that for the quality of ethnic minorities' daily interactions, their interpersonal orientation is more important than a match between their orientation and the dominant orientation of the majority culture.