The better-than-average-effect (BTAE) is the tendency for people to perceive their abilities, attributes, and personality traits as superior compared with their average peer. This article offers a ...comprehensive review of the BTAE and the first quantitative synthesis of the BTAE literature. We define the effect, differentiate it from related phenomena, and describe relevant methodological approaches, theories, and psychological mechanisms. Next, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of BTAE studies, including data from 124 published articles, 291 independent samples, and more than 950,000 participants. Results indicated that the BTAE is robust across studies (dz = 0.78, 95% CI 0.71, 0.84), with little evidence of publication bias. Further, moderation tests suggested that the BTAE is larger in the case of personality traits than abilities, positive as opposed to negative dimensions, and in studies that (a) use the direct rather than the indirect method, (b) involve many rather than few dimensions, (c) sample European Americans rather than East-Asians (especially for individualistic traits), and (d) counterbalance self and average peer judgments. Finally, the BTAE is moderately associated with self-esteem (r = .34) and life satisfaction (r = .33). Results from selection model analyses clarify areas of the BTAE literature in which publication bias may be of elevated concern. Discussion highlights theoretical and empirical implications.
Public Significance Statement
This meta-analysis reveals a robust tendency for people to perceive themselves as superior compared with their average peer. This effect is more pronounced when examining personality traits than abilities and is associated with higher self-esteem.
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites. The present paper examines the relations between fear of missing out, narcissism, Facebook intrusion, and life satisfaction. We ...hypothesized that the fear of missing out and narcissism would play a significant role in Facebook intrusion. The participants in the study were 360 Polish users of Facebook. We administered the Facebook Intrusion Scale, the Fear of Missing Out Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The results showed that a high level of fear of missing out and high narcissism are predictors of Facebook intrusion, while a low level of fear of missing out and high narcissism are related to satisfaction with life. Our findings provide a more comprehensive picture of the predictors of Facebook intrusion and reveal interesting patterns.
•The relations between FoMO, narcissism, Facebook intrusion, and life satisfaction was showed.•The participants in the study were 360 Polish users of Facebook.•A high level of FoMO and high narcissism are predictors of Facebook intrusion.•A low level of FoMO and high narcissism influence satisfaction with life.
Successfully adjusting to retirement represents a major challenge for many older workers. Following the temporal unfolding of retirement process (i.e., preretirement, transition, and postretirement ...phases), the present study draws on the resource-based dynamic model of retirement adjustment to investigate how a diverse set of preretirement personal resources (i.e., physical health, mental health, financial well-being, family support, proactive personality, and general cognitive ability) impact postretirement change trajectory of life satisfaction through the pathway of retirement transition experience (i.e., retirees' subjective experience in terms of how well they are adjusting during the transition phase of retirement immediately after the workforce exit). Using multiwave longitudinal data from 667 Chinese older workers transitioning into retirement collected with a prospective design over 2 years, we found positive effects of the levels of preretirement mental health, financial well-being, family support, proactive personality, and cognitive ability on retirement transition experience. We also found positive effects of the changes in physical health, financial well-being, and family support on retirement transition experience. Retirement transition experience, in turn, was associated with older workers' postretirement change trajectory of life satisfaction. Our findings highlight the importance of the transition phase of retirement, as well as the role of retirement transition experience during this critical phase in explaining the relationships between preretirement resources, in terms of both their levels and changes, and postretirement changes in well-being.
Commuting and working, as important parts of workers' daily life, significantly influence their subjective well-being. However, the complicated interplay among short-term commute or work activity ...satisfaction, medium-term domain satisfaction and long-term life satisfaction remains unclear. Utilizing the survey data on transportation and well-being of Beijing's residents in 2022, this study explores two assumptions. The first, based on bottom-up theory, posits that a typical commute or work activity may influence domain satisfaction and life satisfaction. The second, drawn from top-down theory, suggests a reverse causality. The findings reveal that life satisfaction can influence domain satisfaction and short-term commute or work activity satisfaction directly. However, the effect from short-term satisfaction to life satisfaction is predominantly indirect, mediating by daily travel and job satisfaction. Compared with travel satisfaction, the relationship between work activity and overall job satisfaction is primarily unidirectional, from the short-term to the medium-term. Moreover, the impacts of commute to work activity satisfaction and of daily travel to job satisfaction are strong and significant, substantiating the spill-over effect theory. This exploration into individuals' commute and work experience offers policy implications for the government and provides insights into enhancing people's quality of life.
Perceived social support has consistently been associated with better psychological well-being, but the pathway(s) through which social support increases positive psychological outcomes (e.g., life ...satisfaction) and reduces negative psychological outcomes (e.g., depression) remain unknown. Potentially, social support may encourage a more balanced, self-forgiving, and positive perspective, which may facilitate better well-being. We investigated the extent to which mindfulness, self-compassion, and savoring accounted for the relation between perceived social support and psychological well-being, as assessed by multiple outcome measures, in college students in the U.S. In Study 1 (N = 1024), greater perceived social support was indirectly related to lower levels of negative psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, dysfunctional attitudes) through mindfulness. In Study 2 (N = 228), we replicated and extended these findings. Perceived social support was significantly associated with greater mindfulness, self-compassion, savoring, and positive psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., psychological well-being, subjective happiness), as well as lower levels of negative psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., depression, perceived stress). Furthermore, mindfulness, self-compassion, and savoring each accounted for the association between perceived social support and these psychological well-being outcomes. These findings suggest three pathways through which perceived social support may improve psychological well-being.
As society becomes increasingly diverse over time, the interaction among different cultural groups is an essential topic in intercultural research. Berry (2017) proposed three hypotheses of ...intercultural relations: multiculturalism, contact, and integration, in trying to answer the question, “How shall we all live together?”. Since most studies on intercultural relations are conducted in the context of Western culture, less empirical evidence about the three hypotheses examination is drawn from the plural societies other than Western ones. Therefore, this study evaluates three hypotheses on intercultural relations with regards to Filipino immigrants in Macau, and expects to provide new empirical research support for testing relevant hypotheses on intercultural relations and enrich the existing literature. A total of 233 community samples (58.5 % females; Mage= 28.24) were recruited and employed scales from the MIRIPS questionnaire to collect data on co-ethnic contact, host contact, perceived discrimination, acculturation strategies, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Path analysis revealed that: (1) With respect to the multicultural hypothesis, perceived discrimination was positively related with integration and separation; (2) With respect to the contact hypothesis, co-ethnic contact was positively related with perceived discrimination; co-ethnic contact was positively related with integration and separation, and host contact was positively related with assimilation; (3) With respect to the integration hypothesis, integration was the most preferred strategy for the participants and was associated with better psychological adaptation (termed self-esteem and life satisfaction). These findings partially support the validity of the hypotheses. Finally, future research directions and empirical implications are discussed.
Most people use Facebook on a daily basis; few are aware of the consequences. Based on a 1-week experiment with 1,095 participants in late 2015 in Denmark, this study provides causal evidence that ...Facebook use affects our well-being negatively. By comparing the treatment group (participants who took a break from Facebook) with the control group (participants who kept using Facebook), it was demonstrated that taking a break from Facebook has positive effects on the two dimensions of well-being: our life satisfaction increases and our emotions become more positive. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that these effects were significantly greater for heavy Facebook users, passive Facebook users, and users who tend to envy others on Facebook.
This paper investigates whether the relationship between a person's occupational status and well-being differs across countries with varying institutional contexts. We find that the relationship ...between job and life satisfaction of self-employed people as well as of paid employees varies considerably across countries. Our results indicate that entrepreneurship-friendly institutions in a country are conducive to the well-being of those who are self-employed. Remarkably, the quality of entrepreneurial institutions also increases the levels of well-being of paid employees, but the effect is more pronounced for the self-employed.
•Well-being of self-employed people and paid employees varies across countries.•Entrepreneurship-friendly institutions are conducive to well-being of self-employed.•More entrepreneurial institutions also increase the well-being of paid employees.•The institutional effect on well-being is stronger for self-employed individuals.
People in different cultures may give different weights to emotional experience when evaluating their lives. In modern secularized cultures, people are more likely to focus on maximizing the ...experience of positive emotions and minimizing the experience of negative emotions to achieve well-being. In contrast, in traditional religious cultures, people are more likely to use religious standards to evaluate their lives. Therefore, the present study predicted that the frequency of positive and negative affect would be a better predictor of life satisfaction in secular (vs. religious) cultures. A sample of 295,933 participants from 147 countries was used to test this prediction. The data were extracted from the Gallup World Poll. As expected, the results of multilevel modeling showed that the association between affect and life satisfaction was weaker in religious than secular cultures. Therefore, the socioreligious context partly determines the extent to which affective information is relied on in life evaluation.
The present study investigated the relationship between self-compassion, hope and life satisfaction in a sample of Chinese adults. Three hundred and twenty adults completed the Self-Compassion Scale ...(SCS), the State Hope Scale (SHS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The structural equation model's results showed that self-compassion was positively associated with hope and life satisfaction, that hope was positively associated with life satisfaction, and also that hope fully mediated the positive relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction. Additionally, multi-group analyses showed that the structural model was not moderated by gender or age. The present study highlights the mediating role of hope as an underlying mechanism between self-compassion and life satisfaction. The theoretical and practical implications, as well as the limitations of the present study, are discussed.
•Self-compassion was positively associated with hope.•Self-compassion was positively associated with life satisfaction.•Hope fully mediated the positive relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction.•The multi-group analyses indicated that the structural model was not moderated by gender or age.
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