Algoe, S. B., Haidt, J., &Gable, S. L. (2008). Beyond reciprocity: Gratitude and relationships in everyday life. Emotion, 8(3), 425-429.

The emotion of gratitude is thought to have social effects, but empirical studies of such effects have focused largely on the repaying of kind gestures. The current research focused on the relational antecedents of gratitude and its implications for relationship formation. The authors examined the role of naturally occurring gratitude in college sororities during a …

Choi, J., &Choi, I. (2017). Happiness is medal-color blind: Happy people value silver and bronze medals more than unhappy people.

The present research examined whether happy and unhappy people perceived the value of Olympic medals (i.e., Gold, Silver, and Bronze) differently. We hypothesized that, compared to unhappy people, happy people would perceive greater value for silver and bronze medals in relation to a gold medal because happy people habitually savor even small things more than …

Ariely, D., Kamenica, E., &Prelec, D. (2008). Man& #39;s search for meaning: The case of Legos. Journal of Economic Behavior &Organization, 67(3-4), 671-677.

We investigate how perceived meaning influences labor supply. In a laboratory setting, we manipulate the perceived meaning of simple, repetitive tasks and find a strong influence on subjects’ labor supply. Despite the fact that the wage and the task are identical across the conditions in each experiment, subjects in the less meaningful conditions exhibit reservation …

Fredrickson, B. L., Grewen, K. M., Coffey, K. A., Algoe, S. B., Firestine, A. M., Arevalo, J. M., … &Cole, S. W. (2013). A functional genomic perspective on human well-being.

  To identify molecular mechanisms underlying the prospective health advantages associated with psychological well-being, we analyzed leukocyte basal gene expression profiles in 80 healthy adults who were assessed for hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, as well as potentially confounded negative psychological and behavioral factors. Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being showed similar affective correlates but highly divergent tranome …

Wrzesniewski, A., McCauley, C., Rozin, P., &Schwartz, B. (1997). Jobs, careers, and callings: People& #39;s relations to their work. Journal of research in personality, 31(1), 21-33.

We present evidence suggesting that most people see their work as either a Job (focus on financial rewards and necessity rather than pleasure or fulfillment; not a major positive part of life), a Career (focus on advancement), or a Calling (focus on enjoyment of fulfilling, socially useful work). Employees at two work sites (n= 196) …

Stavrova, O., &Ehlebracht, D. (2016). Cynical beliefs about human nature and income: Longitudinal and cross-cultural analyses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(1), 116-132.

Based on the existing literature on worldview beliefs, cynical hostility, and Machiavellian cynicism, we suggest that holding cynical beliefs about human nature can be detrimental for individuals’ income. Cynical individuals are more likely to avoid cooperation and trust or to overinvest in monitoring, control, and other means of protection from potential exploitation. As a result, …

Turkheimer, E. (2000). Three laws of behavior genetics and what they mean. Current directions in psychological science, 9(5), 160-164.

Behavior genetics has demonstrated that genetic variance is an important component of variation for all behavioral outcomes, but variation among families is not. These results have led some critics of behavior genetics to conclude that heritability is so ubiquitous as to have few consequences for scientific understanding of development, while some behavior genetic partisans have …

Oishi, S., &Kesebir, S. (2015). Income inequality explains why economic growth does not always translate to an increase in happiness. Psychological science, 26(10), 1630-1638.

One of the most puzzling social science findings in the past half century is the Easterlin paradox: Economic growth within a country does not always translate into an increase in happiness. We provide evidence that this paradox can be partly explained by income inequality. In two different data sets covering 34 countries, economic growth was …

Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., &Lehman, D. R. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice.

Can people feel worse off as the options they face increase? The present studies suggest that some people–maximizers–can. Study 1 reported a Maximization Scale, which measures individual differences in desire to maximize. Seven samples revealed negative correlations between maximization and happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, and positive correlations between maximization and depression, perfectionism, and …