The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held in Moscow (Krivokolenny Pereulok, 3, room 3-333) on September, 12 at 18-00 p.m. Christian Welzel (LCSR, Leuphana University of Luneburg) will deliver a report “Cultural Evolution and Subjective Wellbeing: Rising Individualism Rewires Happiness from Religion to Subjective Freedom”.

Numerous studies report a positive individual-level association between happiness and two psychologically distinct states of mind: religious faith and subjective freedom (i.e., a feeling of life control). Although the strength of these relationships varies across countries, no general pattern driving this variation has been shown so far. After surveying 40,534 randomly selected respondents from 43 nations, we find that in countries where happiness is more closely related to religious faith, it is less strongly associated with subjective freedom, and vice versa. More importantly, we identify a driving force behind this inverse relationship. Rising individualism and emancipative values, as an outcome of modernization, diminish the importance of religious faith for people’s happiness, while increasing the importance of subjective freedom. We conclude that the dominant emancipatory direction of cultural evolution favors freedom over religion. If so, the current recession of liberal democracy observed in most part of the world is a temporary phenomenon and liberal democracy will resume its long-term ascension in the course of cultural evolution.

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.

Videoconference with St. Petersburg office of the LCSR (room 303, 55-2, Sedova st.) will be provided. Guests from St. Petersburg are invited to make a request for a pass to the building to Olesya Volchenko (ovolchenko@hse.ru) by 12 am of the seminar’s day.

Guests from Moscow are invited to make a request for a pass to the building to Anastasia Ionova (aionova@hse.ru) by 12 am of the seminar’s day.

Also after the seminar, a videotape will be put up after the summary of the presentation.