What people really care about may emerge more spontaneously than at other times, or at least, COVID may change the relative importance of things (scale of values) and the way they relate to individual happiness. We rephrased the saying as in virus veritas, under the assumption that COVID may have a similar effect on people’s feelings, being an extraordinary event that has dramatically changed the way our lives are organized and conducted. Alcohol loosens moral restraints, enabling people to express what they really think and feel. This was done on the assumption that under an extraordinary and dramatic event reference values may change or, at least, what people really care about may come to the fore more spontaneously.Ī Latin saying, in vino veritas (in wine lies the truth), suggests that persons under the influence of alcohol are more likely to express their true views and desires. Moreover, unlike the WHR 2021, we carried out the research during the lock-down period and, instead of analysing satisfaction with aspects of individual life, we investigated on the factors people believe contribute most to individual well-being. The aim of the present paper was to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic as a “natural experiment” to investigate individual happiness and the effects of some period-specific determinants. According to it, during this time emotions changed more than did life satisfaction. The whole World Happiness Report 2021 focused on the effects of COVID-19 on the structure and quality of people’s lives (Helliwell et al., 2021). This surely happened in 2020 due to the COVID-pandemic. However, while understanding which factors impinge on subjective well-being is of utmost importance in general, it becomes even more intriguing in situations where some major determinants of happiness are jeopardised by widespread contingent factors. In recent decades, empirical studies on this issue have flourished in a variety of disciplines (for a review, see among others Dolan et al., 2008, and Powdthavee 2007, or the monograph Frey 2018). Since antiquity, philosophers have reflected on what contributes to a better life and makes people happy. Moreover, relational goods and good health were considered to be the most important determinants of happiness, though people were not so worried about their own health. An important gender, religious and town size effect also emerged. ![]() Those who declared that COVID and lockdown had jeopardized their interpersonal relationships were significantly less likely to report higher levels of happiness, especially when controlling for other personal and contextual covariates. Data collected by questionnaire during the lockdown suggests that the main direct effect of the pandemic on the happiness of respondents was related to the effect of the pandemic and lockdown on interpersonal relationships. We exploited the unique natural situation of the pandemic and lockdown in Italy to investigate the relationship between happiness and relational and material goods. ![]() Is this still true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when interpersonal relations, health and economic security are threatened and feelings of insecurity emerge? This is the issue that we address in this paper. It has been demonstrated that interpersonal relationships and social capital matter too, and people whose values are more centred on material possessions have a greater probability of being less happy. It is widely accepted that individual happiness is not, or not solely, related to material possessions, at least once basic needs are fulfilled.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |