Unraveling Why Happiness Levels Vary Across Cultures: Mechanisms Underlying East‐West Differences

ABSTRACT Cross‐cultural research on happiness has repeatedly found that the individuals in East Asian cultural contexts report lower levels of happiness than those in Western cultures. In this review, we focus on the five cultural mechanisms that may underlie the mean‐level differences in happiness between the East and the West: (1) self‐enhancing independence versus self‐effacing interdependence, (2) internal versus external standards, (3) norm strength and social comparison, (4) analytic versus dialectical thinking, and (5) high versus low relational mobility. Such cultural differences in psychological processes have far‐reaching consequences for individuals' cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes related with happiness. We present existing empirical findings documenting how psychological tendencies characteristic of East Asians may account for their relatively lower levels of happiness compared to Westerners. Finally, we propose future research directions to fill the gap in the current literature on happiness and culture.