Authentic happiness theory supported by impact of religion on life satisfaction:A longitudinal analysis with data for Germany

摘要

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey, this paper assesses the relationship between lifesatisfaction and religious practice. It is shown that individuals who become more religious over time record longterm gains in life satisfaction, while those who become less religious record long term losses. This result holds netof the effects of personality traits, and also in fixed effects panel models. The paper has significant implicationsfor the current paradigm theory in SWB research, namely set-point theory. This theory holds that the long termSWB of adult individuals is stable, because SWB depends on personality traits and other stable genetic factors.New evidence in this paper about the effects of consciously chosen life goals, including religious ones, on SWB ishard to reconcile with set-point theory. It is more in line with authentic happiness theory.