Explaining the U-shaped life satisfaction: dissatisfaction as a driver of behavior

Abstract

We assess the age profile of subjective well-being by adopting a bio-evolutionary perspective that dissatisfaction is a psychological incentive to prompt adaptive behaviors. In particular, we scrutinize the age profile of baseline satisfaction, i.e., the level of overall life satisfaction after removing the impact of socioeconomic factors. Drawing from the life history literature that studies life-cycle characteristics of evolutionarily adaptive behaviors, we predict that, in the reproductive period, (1) baseline satisfaction is lowest, (2) the impact of the lack of income on life satisfaction is largest, and (3) the impact of the absence of a suitable reproductive partner on life satisfaction is largest. To test these hypotheses, we apply two regression models using the British Household Panel Survey. The results are consistent with the hypotheses. While the first model supports all three hypotheses, the second model supports the first two hypotheses with no contradictory results found for the third hypothesis. In particular, the results demonstrate that baseline satisfaction is U-shaped in age with the lowest point in one’s thirties to early forties, that the impact of income is largest in one’s late thirties to early forties, and that the impact of having a satisfactory spouse/partner is largest in one’s early thirties. These results highlight the importance of studying baseline satisfaction for understanding the gross level of overall life satisfaction, which includes the impact of all socioeconomic factors, as the baseline level affects the gross level through its impact on behaviors.