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Our positive emotions make others happier

Emotions expressed by people in our vicinity impact our life satisfaction. Prof. Kuba Kryś from the PAS Institute of Psychology together with an international team of scientists examined how societal emotional environment influences our well-being. Their results have been published in the Journal of Positive Psychology.

szczescie emocje www

The societal emotional environment is, in other words, the “emotional climate” in a given society that is constituted by the frequency of expressed emotions (either positive or negative). Although the ability to express emotions appears to be universal the extent at which emotions are expressed varies across countries and cultural clusters. Using data collected from nearly 13,000 participants across 49 countries the team of researchers led by Prof. Kryś investigated the extrapersonal effects of emotional expression. Their analysis shows that Latin America and Western Europe are the happiest nations in the world. The lowest level of happiness appears to be among Confucians and Eastern Europeans, including Poles.

Double-edged sword

According to the “double-edged sword” model, expressing negative emotions can increase the level of our individual happiness, but it lowers the level of life satisfaction in the rest of the society. Living among people who often express positive emotions increases our individual sense of happiness. Scientists indicate in their studies differences between positive and negative expression of emotions and their potential usefulness. They emphasize that happiness can be achieved by various methods depending on the adopted perspective – individual or social.

More details in the article: „Societal emotional environments and cross-cultural differences in life satisfaction: A forty-nine country study” w „Journal of Positive Psychology”.

We encourage you to read an interview with Prof. Kuba Kryś