Numerous studies on affective forecasting have demonstrated that people frequently underestimate their ability to adapt to adverse circumstances. But to date, these studies have not assessed people’s affective forecasts early in the experience of these new circumstances. We present two...

While most research shows increasing happiness across the adult life-span, there is a common and persistent misconception that happiness decreases with age. In two experiments, we found evidence to suggest that this age-happiness bias results in part from a biased search for exemplars in memory....

People generally seek out positive moods and avoid negative moods; however, it is unclear which motivation is more pronounced. Two studies addressed this issue by developing a value-based ranking of emotions based on the willingness to pay (WTP) approach. The approach utilizes money’s cardinal...

The aim of this study was to examine the role of work status (i.e. working versus not working) in the relationship between time-use and momentary happiness. We employed a longitudinal research design using monthly assessments via the day reconstruction method over 3 years among 579 older...

This study examines the relationship between retirement and subjective well-being (SWB), utilizing international data from sixteen countries in Western Europe and the US. Differences in social security regimes are exploited to estimate the retirement decision such that it is exogenous to...

This paper answers three research questions: What is the impact of fixed-term employment on the well-being of partners? How do these spillover effects differ by gender, and do gender differences depend on socialization in East or West Germany? Do individual well-being, perceived job insecurity,...

Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, 2004–17) and time diaries from Poland (2013), the U.S. (2006–16), the U.K. (2014–15) and France (2009–10), we examine differences between widowed and partnered older women in well-being and its development in...

Research has established nature connectedness as a reliable correlate of well-being. In the current research, we examined whether meaning in life mediated the association between nature connectedness and well-being. In Study 1, 311 undergraduates completed multiple measures of nature...