Symposium Presentation 1: An emotional connection to nature: A global perspective.

Presenter: Holli-Anne Passmore (Authors: Holli-Anne Passmore, John M. Zelenski, Michael F. Steger)

Background: Empirical evidence has demonstrated that individuals who feel emotionally connected with nature enjoy enhanced levels of both hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing (see meta-analyses by Capaldi et al., 2014; Pritchard et al., 2019). Indeed, nature connectedness has emerged as a significant, distinct predictor of many happiness indicators, over and above other types of human social relationships and connections (Zelenski & Nisbet, 2014). Thus, researchers have made a case for feeling connected to nature as a basic human psychological need in its own right (Baxter & Pelletier, 2019; Hurly & Walker, 2019). Extant research uses convenience samples and a variety of assessment tools; as such, valid cross- national comparisons and a truly global assessment have not, heretofore, been feasible. Aims: We examined data from the Global Wellbeing Initiative with respect to the question: “How often do you feel emotionally connected to data?” in order to address this knowledge gap. Results: Only 1% of global respondents (N = 126,848) choose “I don’t know”, suggesting that the construct of nature connectedness is understandable across cultures around the globe, and truly is a global phenomenon. Correlational and regression analyses of this global data, at both an individual and a country level, suggest that an emotional connection with nature is similar to social connectedness in strength of connection to / prediction of other wellbeing indicators such as feeling content, at peace, feeling able to deal with life, and feeling that one’s life activities are meaningful. We will also report on differential levels of connectedness to nature and differential relationships with various wellbeing indicators across countries. Conclusion: Cross-cultural global comparisons hold great potential as a novel indicator of well-being across the globe. As objective environmental threats increase, nature connectedness may be a more sensitive ‘canary in the coal mine’ than other indicators of well-being.

Symposium Presentation 2: Religious/spiritual connection and subjective well-being around the world.

Presenter: Richard G. Cowden (Authors: Richard G. Cowden, Telli Davoodi).

Religion/spirituality plays a fundamental role in the lives of many people around the world, with more than 80% of individuals worldwide identifying with a religious/spiritual tradition. Complementing existing global research on how religious/spiritual identification and participation is related to various facets of well-being, we leverage nationally representative cross-sectional data from approximately 4 million individuals across more than 114 countries around the world to describe the global, regional, and country-level distribution of self-reported religious/spiritual connection and its association with subjective well-being (operationalized as three interrelated dimensions: evaluations of satisfaction with life, positive affect, and negative affect). As a supplementary analysis, we explore whether the association between religious/spiritual connection and subjective well-being varies by religious affiliation at global, regional, and country levels. We discuss the implications of these findings for enriching existing knowledge about people’s experiences of religious/spiritual connection at local, regional, and global levels.

Symposium Presentation 3: Low-arousal positive affect across adulthood in cultural context.

Presenter: Jeanne Nakamura (Authors: Jeanne Nakamura, Ajit Singh Mann, & Elena Lee)

Experiences of calmness and contentment in daily life, and the contribution of these low-arousal positive emotions to well-being, have largely been neglected by researchers in favor of excitement, enthusiasm, and other high-arousal positive states (Delle Fave et al., 2016; McManus et al., 2018; Tsai, 2007). Increasingly, however, research has linked low-arousal positive affect to multiple dimensions of health and well-being. Some research has suggested that both experiencing low-arousal positive affect (“actual affect”) and desiring to experience it (“ideal affect”) are influenced by age and culture (Tsai, 2007, 2016). To generate a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of emotion, age, and culture, we take advantage of the lifespan coverage and global reach of the Gallup World Poll (GWP), analyzing two waves of GWP data. We report first on the relationship of age to the experience of low-arousal (vs. high-arousal) positive affect in daily life, addressing how actual affect differs between regions. We focus on comparisons of Western Europe and Northern America to East Asia, regions often contrasted in past research. Then, we report on the interaction of age, actual affect, and ideal affect and their impact on well-being, again addressing how this differs by region. Small but significant effects of age were found. Finally, we discuss directions for future research on affective aging in cultural context and implications for our understanding of the nature of well-being across adulthood.

Symposium Presentation 4: Complexifying individualism versus collectivism and West versus East: Global diversity in perspectives on self and other in the Gallup World Poll

Presenter: Tim Lomas (Authors: Tim Lomas, Pablo Diego-Rosell, Koichiro Shiba, Priscilla Standridge, Matthew T. Lee, Brendan Case, Alden Yuanhong Lai, Tyler J. VanderWeele).

A wealth of research has suggested the West tends towards individualism and the East towards collectivism. We explored this topic on an unprecedented scale through two new items in the 2020 Gallup World Poll, involving 121,207 participants in 116 countries. The first tapped into orientations towards self-care versus other-care (“Do you think people should focus more on taking care of themselves or on taking care of others?”). The second enquired into self-orientation versus other-orientation (“Which of the following is closest to your main purpose in life? Being good at what you do in your daily life, Caring for family and close friends, or Helping other people who need help?”). We anticipated self-care and self-orientation would index individualism (hence be higher in the West), while other-care and other-orientation would index collectivism (hence higher in the East). However, contrary to expectation, there was greater self-care in the East (45.82%) than the West (41.58%). As predicted though, there was greater self-orientation in the West (30.20%) than the East (23.08.%). Greater self-care in the East invites one of two interpretations. Either these items: (a) index individualism and collectivism as anticipated, so in some ways the East is more individualistic and the West less individualistic than assumed; or (b) do not index individualism and collectivism as anticipated, so the concepts are more complex than often realised (e.g., collectivism may involve prioritising self-care over other-care). Either way, the findings help complexify these concepts, challenging common cross-cultural generalizations.