Effects of perceived privacy on expressed determinants of happiness

Privacy often changes expressed behaviors as many behaviors are regarded as unsuitable or inappropriate for public settings. Due to changing societal labels about what is deemed socially normative, some individuals may choose not to express many private values and opinions which would not fit a social context. People tend to attribute happiness to both social as well as non-social factors, their attributions depending on personal, temporal and environmental context. Thus, we set out to examine whether differences exist between private and public disclosure about determinants of happiness. Using pre-designed cardboard cubes marked with the question “What makes you happy? ”, we asked voluntary participants to either decorate the cardboard box with their response or to privately write on a note and insert it into a confidential slot within the box. Collected responses were categorized into either social or non-social determinants of happiness. Disclosure of non-social determinants of happiness was found to be significantly correlated with the confidential condition, whilst disclosure of social determinants of happiness was significantly correlated with the public inscription condition. Introduction Happiness is often seen as a result of good health, lack of problems, and general wellbeing. Thus, it is important to realize what individuals associate with happiness so that we can promote happinessinducing determinants and therefore help contribute to an increase in community happiness. The University of British Columbia (UBC) has a socially vibrant community which constantly promotes events and activities aimed at enhancing a student’s university experience. These promoted events are often public in nature and promote interaction between friends and peers. Such interaction has been noted as having a strong positive effect on the associated happiness between the individual and personal affect (Kahneman et al., 2004). However, such promoted activities may not always be equally attractive to all individuals; particularly, individuals who may be deriving positive affect from non-social means. As a result, frequently promoted social events may not affect happiness for these individuals, resulting in a lower state of wellbeing. Therefore, we set out to study the less publicly expressed determinants of happiness in hopes of uncovering the privately held determinants of happiness not openly expressed to the public. Our goal was to determine whether private or public conditions of privacy affect the proportion of social and non-social responses regarding determinants of happiness. We also analyzed the types and frequencies of responses in individual categories of determinants. Societal norms alter a person’s behavior in group and community contexts. Individuals can derive mental representations of normative behavior based upon associations to the physical and social environment they are within (Aarts & Dijksterhuis, 2003). However, societal norms in appropriate public disclosure differ across individuals and cultures, and many individuals possess different forms of self-construal and social appropriateness (Boucher & Maslach, 2009). Furthermore, differing subject matter may be easier to disclose in a private context. For example, sexual themes and erotic relationships alter nonverbal behavior differently while alone or in the presence of others (Costa et al., 2001). Non-social activities which are done intimately or alone are not as normatively disclose-able as social activities; hence, we hypothesize that those preferring a public setting would attribute happiness to determinants which are socially connected, and those preferring a perceived private setting would attribute happiness to determinants which are more personal and individualized. DNC – Anthony Hon Matthew Chu Michael Luk