Positivity Offset - in Life Satisfaction

In Life Satisfaction

Across most cultures, nations, and groups of people, the average and median ratings of life satisfaction are not neutral, as one might expect, but mildly positive.

Groups of people who do not show a positivity offset include people with depression, people in very severe poverty, and people who live in perpetually threatening situations. However, many groups of people that outsiders would not expect to show the positivity offset do, such as people with paraplegia and spinal injury, very elderly people, and people with many chronic illnesses. In some cases these individuals never become as satisfied or happy with their lives as before their illness or injury, but over time (generally approximately two years), they still stabilize at a level substantially above neutral. That is, they judge themselves overall as satisfied or happy and not dissatisfied or unhappy.

Many of the major psychological publications on life satisfaction ratings have come from Ed Diener and colleagues. This empirical work gathered life-satisfaction judgments from many modern and traditional cultures worldwide.