Abstract

Many studies have verified a significant association between lay beliefs about happiness and well-being. However, they have been limited in clarifying the temporal precedence between these two variables because most prior studies have relied on cross-sectional data. To address this limitation, we conducted an autoregressive cross-lagged analysis using longitudinal data collected from 209 Korean adults across three time points over a five-year period (2017-2022). The results showed that lay beliefs about happiness at a prior time point were not associated with well-being at a later time point, whereas well-being at a prior time point was associated with lay beliefs about happiness at a later time point. More specifically, subjective well-being at the prior time point was positively associated with hedonic happiness beliefs at a later time point. This study contributes by identifying the temporal precedence between lay beliefs about happiness and well-being, suggesting that the relationship between lay beliefs about happiness and well-being may be bidirectional rather than unidirectional.