Other cross-cultural research | drtimlomas

top of page

Other Cross-Cultural Research

I am involved in various projects exploring wellbeing from a cross-cultural perspective. The background to this endeavour is the now well-established critique that wellbeing research – and indeed psychology more broadly – has been largely Western-centric, mostly conducted by and on people from places influentially labelled as “WEIRD” (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic). Encouragingly though, scholars are now more widely acknowledging the importance of not just focusing on proto-typically WEIRD places, such as the USA, and instead the field being more cross-cultural and global in its outlook. One is the Global Wellbeing Initiative, a partnership between Gallup and Wellbeing for Planet Earth (a Japanese research and policy foundation). This project has focused on developing new items for the Gallup World Poll (GWP) that reflect perspectives on wellbeing which are particularly associated with non-Western cultures. The first iteration of the module was included in the 2020 GWP, and by the 2022 GWP a finalized iteration had been developed, focusing specifically on balance and harmony, as well as low arousal positive emotions (e.g., peace and calmness).

Papers

Lomas, T., Niemiec, R., Diego-Rosell, P., Lai, A. Y., Lee, M. T., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). The complex relationship between inner and outer peace: New global insights from the Gallup World Poll. Journal of Happiness Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-026-01005-7

Although peace has an intriguing dual character, with both “inner” forms (e.g., low arousal positive states) and “outer forms (e.g., calm and stable societal conditions), there has been minimal work on the relationship between these forms. Drawing on prior literature across various fields, including research exploring the impact of conflict situations on people’s emotions, we hypothesize there is a positive association between inner and outer peace (e.g., people in situations of low outer peacefulness are liable to have lower levels of inner peace). We explored this using data from the most globally comprehensive study to date on inner peace, featuring 386,654 participants in 144 countries across the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Gallup World Polls, which included three items that asked about inner peace in subtly different ways: “Did you feel at peace most of the day yesterday, or not?” (2020); “In general, how often do you feel you are at peace with your thoughts and feelings?” (2021); and “In general, how often can you find inner peace during difficult times?” (2022). We then explored the association of these items with three variables pertaining to outer peace, namely two items about safety/security in the World Poll, together with country-level peacefulness as assessed by the Global Peace Index. While our hypothesis was mostly supported, there were intriguing nuances (e.g., a small but significant inverse relationship between the 2021 item and country-level peacefulness), shedding new light on this important but relatively neglected question of the connection between inner and outer peace.

Lomas, T., Nilsson, A. H., Kjell, O., Niemiec, R., Pawelski, J. O., Padgett, N. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Differentiating balance and harmony through natural language analysis: A cross-national exploration of two understudied wellbeing-related concepts. Journal of Positive Psychology, 21(1), 173-191

Although the concepts of balance and harmony are increasingly appreciated as important in research on wellbeing, their precise meaning is often vague or unclear. This paper aims to elucidate these ideas by exploring responses by 15,275 people across 154 nations to two open-ended questions embedded after the online VIA Inventory of character strengths: “What does balance mean to you?” and “What does harmony mean to you?,” together with an item on which people prefer. Strikingly, while harmony was analysed as more positively valenced, people tended to prefer balance. This is perhaps because, using differential language-based analyses, we found people interpret harmony as mostly about relationships working well in synchrony, whereas balance seems to convey proportionality across most life domains, and hence may have more applicability and impact. The paper offers suggestions for future work on these topics, such as exploration of the relevance of culture and economics.

Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Eichstaedt, J., Pawelski, J. O., Battle, K. E., Felton, C., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Towards a data-driven and globally-informed framework of flourishing: A seven-factor model derived from factor-analysis of 38 indicators in the Gallup World Poll. Social Indicators Research, 181(2), 61.

Recent decades have seen an explosion of interest in the interrelated concepts of well-being and flourishing, with myriad theories and frameworks aiming to elucidate these constructs. Most such work however has been constructed in a top-down theory-driven way, rather than emerging from the ground up in an open, data-driven, inductive process. As such, this paper takes the latter approach, using 38 relevant variables in the Gallup World Poll as a dataset, involving 391,656 participants across three waves (2020–2022). Through factor analysis we derived a data-driven model of well-being and flourishing, with seven factors (listed in order of emergence as factors): balance and harmony; negative states; positive states; positive life appraisal; material security; societal safety; and character and virtue. These seven may not be exhaustive, given that the World Poll does not capture all aspects of well-being/flourishing, and other factors may exist which we did not identify due to lacking the relevant items(s). Moreover, the seven-factor structure was not observed universally across countries and regions, which indicates some cross-cultural variation in the nature of well-being/flourishing. Nevertheless, our analysis provides a useful new lens through which to understand these important topics, complementing and extending existing theoretical work in this area.

Job Chen, Z., Davoodi, T., Diego-Rosell, P., Lomas, T., Yuanhong Lai, A., & Cowden, R. G. (2025). Religious/spiritual connection and subjective well-being across religious and nonreligious individuals in 121 countries. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Prior research suggests a positive association between some religious/spiritual variables and well-being. However, many measures of religious/spiritual constructs are often within explicitly religious contexts, limiting the conceptualization of links between spiritual connection and well-being among nonreligious individuals. The present study employs a novel, versatile measure assessing how frequently individuals feel connected to a religion or form of spirituality. Using nationally representative 2021 Gallup World Poll data from 121 countries ( N = 125,843), we describe the distribution of religious/spiritual connection and examine its associations with subjective well-being among religious and nonreligious individuals. A majority of individuals worldwide—including many who are nonreligious—reported “often/always” feeling religious/spiritual connection. Adjusting for relevant covariates, religious/spiritual connection associated positively with subjective well-being in the global sample of religious individuals and, in some countries, nonreligious individuals (effect sizes were mostly small). Cross-national variation points to the complex role of religious/spiritual connection in shaping subjective well-being globally.

Jeffery-Schwikkarda, D., Li, J., Nagpalc, P., & Lomas, T. (2025). Systematic review of character development in low- and middle-income countries, (20)1, 169-191. Journal of Positive Psychology, 25(1), 169-191.

Character strengths and development is one of the most important and influential areas of positive psychology. Yet most of this research involves – as per the field generally – research in high income countries, with relatively little awareness of its dynamics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, there is a burgeoning research base in such countries, but this has hitherto been neither consolidated nor widely disseminated. To remedy this lacuna, this paper reports on a systematic review of the peer-reviewed journal articles on character development in LMICs, analysing 164 articles selected from 1,507 initial abstracts. Our analysis shows that research into character in LMICs is developing rapidly, noting various significant trends with respect to countries, populations, outcomes, and interventions. We also point where further efforts are needed, showing how research on this important topic can continue to prosper in regions that have been relatively neglected in the literature.

Lomas, T., Case, B., Cratty, F., & Batson, A. (2024). The dance of East and West: A brief history of an unstable but enduring conceptual partnership. East West Studies, 13, 6-25.

The distinction between East and West is among the most prominent and influential cross-cultural tropes in both academic scholarship and public discourse. However, in most cases, this attention tends to focus narrowly on certain instances or iterations of this binary. In particular, Edward Said's influential analysis of 'Orientalism' has led to a relative fixation on the dynamic between Western Europe and the 'near' and 'far' East in the 19 th century. However, the East-West polarity has been a defining feature of at least the last 2,500 years of human history. It is, moreover, a complex and contested binary, whose boundaries and contours have constantly shift ed. This paper therefore highlights these complexities through a 'psycho-historical' approach, namely, exploring the psychological nature and dynamics of this distinction through a historical lens. Th us, we explore variations on the East-West theme throughout six key historical eras: prehistory ; the Classical Age; the rise of Christianity; the medieval world; the Enlightenment; and the Cold War. It is hoped that our analysis not only offers a useful introduction to the evolution of the East-West distinction but also encourages scholars to adopt a more subtle and nuanced approach to its dynamics.

Lomas, T., Diego-Rosell, P., Shiba, K., Standridge, P., Lee, M. T., & Lai, A. Y. (2024). The world prefers a calm Life, but not everyone gets to have one: Global trends in valuing and experiencing calmness in the Gallup World Poll. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(6), 1023-1036.

Psychology has paid relatively little attention to low arousal positive states like calmness. One explanation for this lacuna is the Western-centric nature of the field, and the related suggestion that such states are undervalued in Western cultures compared to high arousal ones, in contrast to Eastern cultures, which possibly place greater value on low arousal forms. But how accurate are these generalizations? This study draws on the most globally comprehensive study to date on calmness-121,207 participants in 116 countries in the 2020 Gallup World Poll-featuring two items asking whether people: (a) prefer a calm life or an exciting life; and (b) experienced calmness yesterday. Our particular interest was in the intersection of these, such that we could categorise people in four categories of calmness: satisfied (both prefer and experience it); unwanted (experience calmness but prefer excitement); longed-for (prefer calmness but don't experience it); and unmissed (neither prefer nor experience it). The results reveal a nuanced picture that challenges certain stereotypes (e.g., calmness had no particular association with Eastern cultures), and shed new light on this overlooked topic (e.g., poorer people and countries are more likely to prefer calmness yet are less likely to actually experience it). As ever, more work is needed, but these findings provide a foundation for future research into this important phenomenon.

Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Lai, A. Y., Pawelski, J. O., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2024). A multidimensional assessment of global flourishing: Differential rankings of 145 Countries on 38 wellbeing indicators in the Gallup World Poll, with an accompanying factor analysis of the structure of flourishing. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 20(3), 397-421.

For over ten years the World Happiness Report has influentially ranked nations on self-reported life evaluation as measured by the Gallup World Poll. Inspired by this endeavour, this paper aims to broaden our understanding of global flourishing by assessing an expansive battery of 38 items relating to wellbeing in the World Poll, encompassing 386,654 people in 145 countries over three years (2020-2022). The variation in the respective placing of countries across different items reveals a complex picture of flourishing, with many nations ranking highly on certain metrics but faring poorly on others. Moreover, a factor analysis of the items produced a conceptualization of flourishing featuring nine different dimensions. Together, these findings paint a nuanced picture of both the multifaceted nature of flourishing and its complex manifestations around the world.

Case, B., & Lomas, T. (2024). Towards a historical comparison framework. International Journal of Wellbeing, 13(4), 3587.

The recently proposed Global Comparison Framework (Lomas, 2023) lays out a rich array of dimensions of flourishing and their determinants on which the nations of the world might be compared. Despite its capaciousness and comprehensiveness, however, the GCF’s reliance on a contemporary snapshot of global diversity still presents scholars engaged in cross-cultural studies of flourishing with a relatively narrow field of inquiry. The GCF’s focus on contemporary indicators is understandable, but the roots of many of the differences among nations today – whether considered in terms of psychological profile, economic development, political and cultural norms, or, ultimately, overall flourishing – frequently lie in the distant and long buried past. This paper provides notes toward a historical supplement for the GCF – a historical comparison framework (HCF) – by sketching a set of indicators which, while no longer operative or at least salient for most of the world today, were at various points highly significant determinants of cultural, technological, or economic change, with effects which are still evident today in cross-cultural differences in flourishing or its determinants. We group these indicators under three broad headings: geography, migration and conquest, and religion.

Counted, V., Cowden, R. G., & Lomas, T. (2024). Global diversity in spatial (rural-urban) well-being in over 100 countries. Cities, 149, 104987.

This study uses three years of repeated cross-sectional data (N = 386,654) from the multinational Gallup World Poll (representing >90 % of world's population) to explore differences in the well-being of rural and urban inhabitants. We performed a series of descriptive analyses comparing rural and urban residents on 30 indicators of well-being, both in the overall sample and by regional, sex, educational, age, and income subgroups. In the overall sample and for most subgroups, urban residents tended to report higher levels of well-being compared to their rural counterparts (effect sizes were mostly very small). This trend did not apply to all well-being metrics, with rural residents occasionally reporting more favorable well-being for some indicators (both in the overall sample and for some subgroups). Our findings suggest that the magnitude and direction of urban-rural well-being disparities are nuanced and may vary across different individual and geographical capabilities (e.g., resources, opportunities, and freedoms available to individuals based on their location). The findings of this study offer a global snapshot of potential urban-rural disparities in well-being, and provide a stepping-stone toward more robust research that can unpack the causal dynamics between the rural-urban continuum and multidimensional well-being. We explore some possible implications of the findings for policy development and practice aimed at fostering well-being in rural and urban areas around the world.

Counted, V., Cowden, R. G., & Lomas, T. (2024). Multidimensional flourishing in Africa: An intracontinental analysis of 38 well-being indicators in 40 countries. Journal of Happiness Studies, 25(5), 51.

Despite the rising global interest in well-being and its various dimensions, research in this area has been criticized for its Western-centric conceptual and geographical emphasis. In this cross-sectional study, we leverage more than 30 indicators of well-being from three years of Gallup World Poll (2020–2022) data to explore the diversity of well-being in nationally representative samples from 40 countries on the African continent (N = 90,093). Our descriptive analysis provided evidence of between-country differences in well-being, including among countries within the same region. There was also some evidence of within-country variation across the indicators of well-being. We draw on several theoretical perspectives to discuss the diverse experiences of well-being in the African context, highlighting the importance of applying a culturally sensitive lens to understanding and promoting well-being. Our descriptive exploration of multidimensional well-being in Africa shines a spotlight on a part of the world that has received comparatively less empirical attention in this area, and provides a useful foundation for future research toward building a more inclusive and diverse global picture of human flourishing.

Lomas, T. (2023). A provisional global comparison framework: One hundred psychologically salient ways of conceptualizing and evaluating the world. International Journal of Wellbeing, 13(4), 1-27

Having long been critiqued as Western-centric, psychology is increasingly attuned to the need to conduct more cross-cultural research. However, there is relatively little clarity, consensus, or nuance on how best to conceptually “carve up” and assess different peoples and places. Arguably the two most common distinctions are East versus West, and differentiating countries into low, middle, and high income groups. However, both categorizations have their issues, not to mention that overreliance on these hardly does justice to the complexity of the world. To encourage more nuanced and granular thinking, this paper presents a provisional Global Comparison Framework, a curated list of one hundred variables on which countries can be differentiated. These have been selected primarily as: (a) psychologically salient (e.g., likely to influence outcomes such as mental health); (b) having publicly available data from reputable organizations (e.g., the World Bank); and (c) having relatively global coverage (e.g., including at least two thirds of nations). However, the framework is also offered as an iterative work-in-progress that will be refined in relation to feedback. Similarly, in recognition that these indicators are not the only relevant variables, and that their selection is inevitably influenced by the author’s own values and interests, it is hoped that the paper might inspire scholars to create their own version of this kind of framework, featuring variables they would prefer to see included. Finally, and more broadly, this framework will ideally encourage and facilitate greater cross-cultural consideration and more nuanced investigations across the field.

Lomas, T. (2023). Exploring associations between income and wellbeing: New global insights from the Gallup World Poll. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(4), 629-646.

Wellbeing is an increasingly prominent topic across academia, including analyses of the myriad factors that influence it. Of these, perhaps the most prominent is economics, with a relatively-well substantiated link, especially at lower levels of income. However, most work has been limited to select measures (usually life evaluation) and/or populations (usually Western nations). This paper offers an expansive approach, exploring associations between income and a selection of 31 items pertaining to wellbeing in the Gallup World Poll over 3 years (2020–2022), covering 386,654 people in 142 countries. Significantly, on every single variable, participants with higher incomes fare better than those with lower incomes. However, there are also many interesting nuances when filtering the results through various demographic considerations, including comparing participants in terms of global regions, sex, age, and level of education. Together, these nuances paint a complex picture of the impact of economics on wellbeing.

Lomas, T., Diego-Rosell, P., Shiba, K., Standridge, P., Lee, M. T., Case, B., Lai, A. Y., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2023). Complexifying individualism versus collectivism and West versus East: Exploring global diversity in perspectives on self and other in the Gallup World Poll. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 54(1), 61-89.

A wealth of research has suggested the West tends toward individualism and the East toward collectivism. We explored this topic on an unprecedented scale through two new items in the 2020 Gallup World Poll, involving 121,207 participants in 116 countries. The first tapped into orientations toward self-care versus other-care (“Do you think people should focus more on taking care of themselves or on taking care of others?”). The second enquired into self-orientation versus other-orientation (“Which of the following is closest to your main purpose in life? Being good at what you do in your daily life, Caring for family and close friends, or Helping other people who need help?”). We anticipated that self-care and self-orientation would index individualism (hence be higher in the West), while other-care and other-orientation would index collectivism (hence be higher in the East). However, contrary to expectation, there was greater self-care in the East (45.82%) than in the West (41.58%). As predicted though, there was greater self-orientation in the West (30.20%) than in the East (23.08.%). Greater self-care in the East invites one of two interpretations. Either these items: (a) index individualism and collectivism as anticipated, so in some ways the East is more individualistic and the West less individualistic than assumed; or (b) do not index individualism and collectivism as anticipated, so the concepts are more complex than often realized (e.g., collectivism may involve prioritizing self-care over other-care). Either way, the findings help complexify these concepts, challenging common cross-cultural generalizations in this area.

Lomas, T., Ishikawa, Y., Diego-Rosell, P., Daly, J., English, C., Harter, J., … Lai, A. Y. (2022). Balance and harmony in the Gallup World Poll: The development of the Global Wellbeing Initiative module. International Journal of Wellbeing, 12(4), 1-19.

Over recent decades, scholarship on wellbeing has flourished. However, this has been critiqued as Western-centric, firstly in terms of the location of research participants and scholars, and moreover in terms of the very ideas and values through which wellbeing is understood. In response to such issues, the Global Wellbeing Initiative-a partnership between Gallup and the Wellbeing for Planet Earth foundation-was created to look at wellbeing from a more global perspective. The centrepiece of this initiative is a survey module in the Gallup World Poll. This paper charts the evolution of this module to date, from its initial incarnation in the 2020 poll (featuring items on various aspects of wellbeing) to a finalized 2022 iteration (which focuses specifically on balance and harmony). With the 2022 version now intended to stay consistent longitudinally, this paper establishes a valuable baseline for this important project which will contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of wellbeing.

Lambert, L., Lomas, T., van de Weijer, M. P., Passmore, H. A., Joshanloo, M., Harter, J., Ishikawa, Y., Lai, A., Kitagawa, T., Chen, D., Kawakami, T., Miyata, H., & Diener, E. (2020). Towards a greater global understanding of wellbeing: A proposal for a more inclusive measure. International Journal of Wellbeing, 10(2), 1-18. doi:10.5502/ijw.v10i2.1037

The science of wellbeing has come a long way from the early days of measuring wellbeing via a nation’s GDP, and wellbeing measures and concepts continue to proliferate to capture its various elements. Yet, much of this activity has reflected concepts from Western cultures, despite the emphasis placed on wellbeing in all corners of the globe. To meet the challenges and opportunities arising from cross-disciplinary research worldwide, the Well-Being for Planet Earth Foundation and the Gallup World Poll have joined forces to add more culturallyrelevant constructs and questions to existing Gallup modules. In this white paper, we review the discussion from the international well-being summit in Kyoto, Japan (August 2019), where nine such additions were proposed and highlight why a more global view of wellbeing is needed. Overall, the new items reflect a richer view of wellbeing than life satisfaction alone and include hedonic and eudaimonic facets of wellbeing, social wellbeing, the role of culture, community, nature, and governance. These additions allow for the measurement of a broader conceptualization of wellbeing, more refined and nuanced cross-cultural comparisons, and facilitate a better examination of the causes of variation in global wellbeing. The new Gallup World Poll additions will be trialled in 2020, with additional inclusions from this summit to be made in 2021.

Okuzono, S. S., Shiba, K., Kim, E. S., Shirai, K., Kondo, N., Fujiwara, T., Kondo, K., Lomas, T., Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Kawachi, I., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2022). Ikigai and subsequent health and wellbeing among Japanese older adults: Longitudinal outcome-wide analysis. The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, 21, 100391.

Background: Having a purpose in life has been linked to improved health and wellbeing; however, it remains unknown whether having "Ikigai"-a related but broader concept in Japan-is also beneficial for various physical and psychosocial outcomes. Methods: Using data from a nationwide longitudinal study of Japanese older adults aged ≥65 years, we examined the associations between having Ikigai in 2013 and a wide range of subsequent outcomes assessed in 2016 across two databases (n = 6,441 and n = 8,041), including dimensions of physical health, health behavior, psychological distress, social wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, and pro-social/altruistic behaviors. We adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and the outcome values (whenever data were available) in the prior wave (2010). Findings: Having Ikigai (vs. not having Ikigai) was associated with a 31% lower risk of developing functional disability [95% confidence interval (CI) for risk ratio: 0.58, 0.82] and 36% lower risk of developing dementia [95% CI for risk ratio: 0.48, 0.86] during the three-year follow-up. Having Ikigai was associated with decreased depressive symptoms and hopelessness as well as higher happiness, life satisfaction, instrumental activity of daily living, and certain social outcomes (e.g., more frequent participation in hobby clubs). Some of these associations were stronger for men than women, and among individuals with high socioeconomic status (p-values for effect measure modification < 001). Interpretation: Having Ikigai may promote health and wellbeing outcomes among Japanese older adults, but particularly men and individuals with high socioeconomic status.

Shiba, K., Cowden, R. G., Gonzalez, N., Lee, M. T., Lomas, T., Lai, A. Y., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2022). Global Trends of Mean and Inequality in Multidimensional Wellbeing: Analysis of 1.2 Million Individuals From 162 Countries, 2009–2019. Frontiers in Public Health, 10.

Introduction: Human flourishing is a multidimensional concept characterized by a state of complete wellbeing. However, much of the prior research on wellbeing has principally focused on population averages assessed using a single item of wellbeing. This study examined trends in population averages and inequalities for a multidimensional index of wellbeing and compared emergent patterns with those found for Cantril's ladder, a measure of life satisfaction commonly used as a unidimensional index of wellbeing. Methods: Data were from the Gallup World Poll from the years 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional survey of nationally representative samples comprising ~1.2 million individuals from 162 countries. We assessed five domains of flourishing: (1) happiness, (2) health, (3) purpose, (4) character, and (5) social relationships. We used the Gini Index to estimate inequalities in wellbeing within populations. We examined and compared country ranking, global and region-specific trajectories of mean and inequality, and relationships with age for flourishing and Cantril's ladder. Results: Although all trends were highly correlated across the two metrics of wellbeing, we identified distinct patterns in flourishing concerning geography, time, and age relationships that were not observed for Cantril's ladder. Temporal trends and age relationships were different across domains of flourishing. Evidence of changing inequalities in wellbeing was also found, even when population averages were high or stable over time. Conclusion: Comprehensive measures of wellbeing are needed to capture the complex and changing patterns of wellbeing both within and across populations.

Lambert, L., Lomas, T., van de Weijer, M. P., Passmore, H. A., Joshanloo, M., Harter, J., Ishikawa, Y., Lai, A., Kitagawa, T., Chen, D., Kawakami, T., Miyata, H., & Diener, E. (2020). Towards a greater global understanding of wellbeing: A proposal for a more inclusive measure. International Journal of Wellbeing, 10(2), 1-18. doi:10.5502/ijw.v10i2.1037

The science of wellbeing has come a long way from the early days of measuring wellbeing via a nation’s GDP, and wellbeing measures and concepts continue to proliferate to capture its various elements. Yet, much of this activity has reflected concepts from Western cultures, despite the emphasis placed on wellbeing in all corners of the globe. To meet the challenges and opportunities arising from cross-disciplinary research worldwide, the Well-Being for Planet Earth Foundation and the Gallup World Poll have joined forces to add more culturallyrelevant constructs and questions to existing Gallup modules. In this white paper, we review the discussion from the international well-being summit in Kyoto, Japan (August 2019), where nine such additions were proposed and highlight why a more global view of wellbeing is needed. Overall, the new items reflect a richer view of wellbeing than life satisfaction alone and include hedonic and eudaimonic facets of wellbeing, social wellbeing, the role of culture, community, nature, and governance. These additions allow for the measurement of a broader conceptualization of wellbeing, more refined and nuanced cross-cultural comparisons, and facilitate a better examination of the causes of variation in global wellbeing. The new Gallup World Poll additions will be trialled in 2020, with additional inclusions from this summit to be made in 2021.

Merino, D., Velázquez, M., & Lomas, T. (2019). An exploration of the Spanish cultural term rasmia: A combination of eagerness, strength, activeness, courage, tenacity and gracefulness. Journal of Happiness Studies. doi: 10.1007/s10902-019-00104-y

Since much of the empirical work within Positive Psychology has taken place in English-speaking Western countries, there is concern that the resulting concepts and theories of well-being reflect a bias towards Western (and more specifically English influenced) ways of thinking. However, efforts are underway in the field to enhance its intercultural sensitivity, including in relation to studying cross-cultural diversity in emotional experience and understanding. In that respect, the current article focuses on the notion of rasmia, a Spanish term denoting drive and tenacity in achieving a goal. The research aims to explore the beliefs and conceptions that Spanish people have regarding rasmia. An on-line survey of Spanish residents revealed that rasmia was defined as incorporating eagerness, strength, activeness, courage, tenacity and gracefulness. A second study, conducted in order to determine the degree of agreement with this definition, showed an 80% of agreement. The results highlight the value of engaging with non-English concepts like rasmia.

bottom of page