What does it mean to be happy and what makes people happy? Psychological research on these questions has accelerated over the past decades. In my dissertation, I present three manuscripts on the sociocultural specificity of well-being determinants. The first manuscript (Berkessel et al., 2022; SPPS) shows that the link between socioeconomic status and physical well-being during pandemics changes over time and that this is at least partially due to wealthy people having more opportunities to adhere to spread-prevention norms in later pandemic stages. The second manuscript (Berkessel et al., 2021; PNAS) shows that the link between socioeconomic status and well-being is stronger in more economically developed nations and that this is at least partially due to lower cultural religiosity in these nations. The third manuscript (Berkessel et al., in press; PsychScience) shows that the link between obesity and its adverse consequences is weaker in regions with high obesity prevalence and that this is at least partially due to reduced weight bias in these regions. In sum, my dissertation shows that the sociocultural context is important for what determines our well-being. Even effects previously considered culturally universal seem to be contingent upon the sociocultural context.
