The Role of Happiness in the Economic Environment

Abstract

The concept of happiness is interpreted by using many meanings and a variety of denotations in social sciences. Human happiness(quality of life, life satisfaction, subjective well-being, level of positive emotions, etc.) is schematized in many differentcontexts of theoretical, empirical, and experimental studies. Various efforts of experts aimed at understanding, describing, andexplaining the experience of happiness bring many interesting findings, applicable in both the commercial and noncommercialsector. At the same time, empirical data dispute many stereotypes of human happiness, its laic and intuitive interpretation. Thereality is more complicated. Life satisfaction and experienced human happiness are determined by a number of cultural-social,economic, or psychological factors. In this regard, we aim to learn about the potential effects of social comparison, socialadaptation, and impact of money on the subjective level of experienced happiness and quality of life. It is becoming apparentthat social comparison is an important factor for perceiving one’s own satisfaction and happiness. The level of achieved positiveemotions and the period of experiencing such emotions depend on the nature of such emotions’ source. Money is onlyimportant to a certain degree for subjective perception of the quality of life.