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Genetic and Environmental Effects on Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-Being: Evidence from a Post-Communist Culture

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Abstract

Prior behavioral genetic studies in positive psychology were entirely based on data from Western democracies, leaving the question open whether the magnitude of genetic effects on well-being indicators is similar in substantially different societal contexts. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the structure of the genetic and environmental influences on happiness, life satisfaction, meaning in life, optimism, sense of coherence, and general well-being in a non-Western sample. Altogether, 100 monozygotic and 36 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs from Hungary (73 % female; Mage = 43 years, SD = 16 years) participated in the survey. Univariate classical twin modeling (ACE analysis) was performed using structural equation models. Heritability estimates of the positive psychological variables were largely variable, ranging from 0 % (happiness and meaning in life) to 67 % (life satisfaction). Also, estimates for the influence of common environment fell between 0 % (life satisfaction, sense of coherence, and well-being) and 60 % (meaning in life). Unshared environmental influences however, explained a moderate variance of all investigated variables (33–62 %). Most results were in line with previous findings from Western countries; however, some notable differences—e.g., lower hereditary influence for happiness or more robust role of shared environmental effects for optimism—were also established. These findings suggest that the communist and post-communist legacy did not produce drastic differences in the structure of heritability and environmental influences as compared to countries with longer traditions of democracy and economic prosperity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Semmelweis University, Nagyvárad tér 4. XX. em., Budapest, H-1089, Hungary

    Barna Konkolÿ Thege

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Barna Konkolÿ Thege

  3. Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    Levente Littvay

  4. Department of Radiology and Oncotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    David Laszlo Tarnoki & Adam Domonkos Tarnoki

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  1. Barna Konkolÿ Thege
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  2. Levente Littvay
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  3. David Laszlo Tarnoki
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  4. Adam Domonkos Tarnoki
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Correspondence to Barna Konkolÿ Thege.

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Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

The study was supported by Medexpert Ltd. The first author also gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Norlien Foundation and the IMPART program (Intersections of Mental Health Perspectives in Addictions Research Training) received while working on this paper.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Barna Konkolÿ Thege and Levente Littvay contributed equally to this paper.

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Konkolÿ Thege, B., Littvay, L., Tarnoki, D.L. et al. Genetic and Environmental Effects on Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-Being: Evidence from a Post-Communist Culture. Curr Psychol 36, 84–89 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9387-x

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