Cross-Cultural Insights into Wellbeing among Vulnerable Populations in Eastern Africa, 2016-2018

What can we learn about how individuals pursue the "good life" and remain optimistic about the future under very different cultural and material conditions than in the United States?  This project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and St. Louis University, attempts to answer this and other questions through a cross-cultural study of well-being in two low-income communities: South Wollo, Ethiopia and Baringo, Kenya.  The study addresses important questions on well-being that are unexplored in previous work, including how absolute versus relative poverty affects subjective perceptions of well-being and what effects exposure to new forms of wealth, inequality, and materiality have on individual perceptions of well-being.  Specific questions to be addressed include: how quantitative metrics of material welfare relate to self-assessments of well-being; how the perception of incremental improvements in social and material well-being transform (if at all) aspirations and goals of individuals; and how external exposure to new wealth and lifestyle differences affect aspirations and assessments of well-being?   Further information about the project can be found at  http://www.happinessandwellbeing.org/little   and http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/06/er_happiness_research/campus.html?utm_source=ebulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Emory_Report_EB_070616