No man is an island: A study of the interplay between individual ethics and shared cultural values in influencing happiness

Rising levels of global unhappiness, coupled with increasing societal and economic challenges, highlight the need for deeper exploration into the factors that shape happiness. Prior research has examined the direct relationships between income, religiosity, political orientation & individual ethics, and happiness, but the role of the macro-level ethical climate remains under-explored. This study examines the relationship between ethics and happiness at both individual and collective levels. Specifically, we investigate whether country-level ethics, referred to as ethical climates within countries shape how individuals derive happiness from income, religiosity, political orientation, and personal ethics. Using data from the European Values Survey (EVS) and the World Values Survey (WVS), spanning over 500,000 observations from 117 countries, this study provides new insights into the relationship between ethics, collective ethical climates, and happiness.