The (Mis)match between Individual and Group Values and Subjective Well-Being

Studies on the importance of the match of a person with other people are quite popular in the social sciences. A special place among them is occupied by studies of the values match, as certain moral guidelines that mean the highest aspirations of a person. The results of such studies, as a rule, are the conclusions that similarity with others makes people happier, more self-confident and improves the quality of relationships with people. Questions about the impact of a person's mismatch with the majority are raised less frequently in studies. Based on data from recent waves of European and World Values Surveys (N = 122,224), present research examined whether emancipative values (mis)match affects subjective well-being. As a result, it was found that the emancipative values match is not a factor guaranteeing an increase the level of subjective well-being. At the same time, the values mismatch works differently depending on whether a person is more or less emancipative compared to the majority in the country. On average, less emancipative have a higher level of SWB than more emancipative. However, with the spread of emancipative values in the country, this difference becomes insignificant. In high emancipative countries, the subjective well-being of people does not depend on the level of emancipative values (mis)match. The high level of emancipative values of the country is the main factor in the SWB of individuals, more important than the match or mismatch of values.