IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kch/wpaper/sdes-2021-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How does inquisitiveness matter for generativity and happiness?

Author

Listed:
  • Junichi Hirose

    (Multidisciplinary Science Cluster, Collaborative Community Studies Unit, Kochi University)

  • Koji Kotani

    (School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology)

Abstract

Inquisitiveness (curiosity & acceptance to something and someone different) is a main engine for one person to initiate some relation, and the literature has established that maintaining nice relationships with friends, family and general others contributes to generativity and happiness. However, little is known about how generativity and happiness are characterized by inquisitiveness. We hypothesize that inquisitiveness is a fundamental determinant for generativity and happiness, empirically examining the relationships along with cognitive, noncognitive and sociodemographic factors. We conduct questionnaire surveys with 400 Japanese subjects, applying quantile regression and structural equation modeling to the data. First, the analysis identifies the importance of inquisitiveness in characterizing generativity in that people with high inquisitiveness tend to be generative. Second, people are identified to be happy as they have high generativity and inquisitiveness, demonstrating two influential roles of inquisitiveness as direct and indirect determinants through a mediator of generativity. Overall, the results suggest that inquisitiveness shall be a key element of people’s happiness through intergenerational and intragenerational communications or relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Junichi Hirose & Koji Kotani, 2021. "How does inquisitiveness matter for generativity and happiness?," Working Papers SDES-2021-3, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised May 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2021-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.souken.kochi-tech.ac.jp/seido/wp/SDES-2021-3.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2016. "Intergenerational sustainability and the degree of capitalism in the society: A field experiment," Working Papers SDES-2016-10, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jul 2016.
    2. Lara Aknin & Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton, 2012. "Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion: Evidence for a Positive Feedback Loop between Prosocial Spending and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 347-355, April.
    3. Ambrose Leung & Cheryl Kier & Tak Fung & Linda Fung & Robert Sproule, 2011. "Searching for Happiness: The Importance of Social Capital," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 443-462, June.
    4. Alma Au & Simon Lai & Wen Wu & Jan Hofer & Holger Busch & Iva Poláčková Šolcová & Peter Tavel & Sheung-Tak Cheng, 2020. "Generativity and Positive Emotion in Older Adults: Mediation of Achievement and Altruism Goal Attainment Across Three Cultures," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 677-692, February.
    5. Ruut Veenhoven, 1991. "Is happiness relative?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-34, February.
    6. Mentzakis, Emmanouil & Moro, Mirko, 2009. "The poor, the rich and the happy: Exploring the link between income and subjective well-being," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 147-158, January.
    7. D. Gunzler & W. Tang & N. Lu & P. Wu & X. Tu, 2014. "A Class of Distribution-Free Models for Longitudinal Mediation Analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 79(4), pages 543-568, October.
    8. Yoshinori Nakagawa, 2016. "Effect of critical thinking disposition on household earthquake preparedness," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 81(2), pages 807-828, March.
    9. Jorgensen, Bradley S. & Jamieson, Robert D. & Martin, John F., 2010. "Income, sense of community and subjective well-being: Combining economic and psychological variables," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 612-623, August.
    10. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Makoto Kakinaka, 2016. "Social Value Orientation and Capitalism in Societies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Gerhard Meisenberg & Michael Woodley, 2015. "Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being and Their Relationships with Gender Equality," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1539-1555, December.
    12. Sonja Lyubomirsky & Heidi Lepper, 1999. "A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 137-155, February.
    13. Welsch, Heinz, 2006. "Environment and happiness: Valuation of air pollution using life satisfaction data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 801-813, July.
    14. Brosig-Koch, Jeannette & Helbach, Christoph & Ockenfels, Axel & Weimann, Joachim, 2011. "Still different after all these years: Solidarity behavior in East and West Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1373-1376.
    15. Mostafa E. Shahen & Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani, 2019. "Happiness, Generativity and Social Preferences in a Developing Country: A Possibility of Future Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    16. Dong Lee & Sung Park & Max Uhlemann & Philip Patsult, 2000. "What Makes You Happy?: A Comparison of Self-reported Criteria of Happiness Between Two Cultures," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 351-362, June.
    17. Myung Ja Kim & C. Michael Hall & Heejeong Han, 2021. "Behavioral Influences on Crowdfunding SDG Initiatives: The Importance of Personality and Subjective Well-Being," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Yoshinori Nakagawa, 2016. "Effect of critical thinking disposition on household earthquake preparedness," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 81(2), pages 807-828, March.
    19. Christian Kroll, 2015. "Global Development and Happiness: How Can Data on Subjective Well-Being Inform Development Theory and Practice?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 281-309, September.
    20. Hagtvedt, Lydia Paine & Dossinger, Karyn & Harrison, Spencer H. & Huang, Li, 2019. "Curiosity made the cat more creative: Specific curiosity as a driver of creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1-13.
    21. Magnani, Elisabetta & Zhu, Rong, 2018. "Does kindness lead to happiness? Voluntary activities and subjective well-being," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 20-28.
    22. Raja Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshio Kamijo, 2016. "Generativity and social value orientation between rural and urban societies," Working Papers SDES-2016-11, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2016.
    23. Molli R Grossman & Tara L Gruenewald & Lynn Martire, 2020. "Failure to Meet Generative Self-Expectations is Linked to Poorer Cognitive–Affective Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(4), pages 792-801.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Junichi Hirose & Koji Kotani & Shunsuke Managi, 2023. "How do autonomy and inquisitiveness play roles in sustainable development? Implications from matrilineal Island Palau," Working Papers SDES-2023-1, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Feb 2023.
    2. Hirose, Junichi & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2023. "Do autonomy and inquisitiveness contribute to SDGs? Implications from the matrilineal island of Palau," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 303-318.
    3. Junichi Hirose & Koji Kotani & Yoshinori Nakagawa, 2021. "Is Climate Change Induced by Humans? The Impact of the Gap in Perceptions on Cooperation," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 391-413, October.
    4. Mostafa E. Shahen & Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani, 2019. "Happiness, Generativity and Social Preferences in a Developing Country: A Possibility of Future Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    5. Mst Asma Khatun & Yu Nakamura & Koji Kotani, 2021. "Mis(match) and happiness in marital relationship: Importance of future planning and inquisitiveness," Working Papers SDES-2021-7, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jul 2021.
    6. Mst Asma Khatun & Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani, 2020. "Cooperation and cognition gaps for salinity: A field experiment of information provision," Working Papers SDES-2020-4, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jun 2020.
    7. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Yoshinori Nakagawa, 2021. "Cooperation on climate change and ongoing urbanization," Working Papers SDES-2021-8, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Sep 2021.
    8. Raja Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshinori Nakagawa & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2018. "Does deliberation change individual opinions and hence resolve the intergenerational sustainability dilemma in societies?," Working Papers SDES-2018-7, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2018.
    9. Zhang Jingchao & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2021. "Are societies becoming proself? A topographical difference under fast urbanization in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 12976-12993, September.
    10. Raja Rajendra Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshinori Nakagawa & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2023. "Does Being Intergenerationally Accountable Resolve the Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 99(4), pages 644-667.
    11. Timilsina, Raja R. & Kotani, Koji & Nakagawa, Yoshinori & Saijo, Tatsuyoshi, 2022. "Intragenerational deliberation and intergenerational sustainability dilemma," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Raja R Timilsina & Yutaka Kobayashi & Koji Kotani, 2022. "Non-kinship successors for resource sustainability," Working Papers SDES-2022-2, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jan 2022.
    13. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2017. "Intergenerational sustainability dilemma and a potential solution: Future ahead and back mechanism," Working Papers SDES-2017-9, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Aug 2017.
    14. Yayan Hernuryadin & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2020. "Time Preferences of Food Producers: Does “Cultivate and Grow” Matter?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 96(1), pages 132-148.
    15. Lucía Gómez-Balcácer & Noelia Somarriba Arechavala & Patricia Gómez-Costilla, 2023. "The Importance of Different Forms of Social Capital for Happiness in Europe: A Multilevel Structural Equation Model (GSEM)," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 601-624, February.
    16. Sarinda Taengnoi, 2014. "Economic man and social woman: Determinants of immigrants' life satisfaction," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(3), pages 1530-1549.
    17. Andre P. Audette & Sean Lam & Haley O’Connor & Benjamin Radcliff, 2019. "(E)Quality of Life: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effect of Gender Equality on Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(7), pages 2173-2188, October.
    18. Hagit Sabato & Sapir Bar-Ilan, 2023. "Pleasure or Meaning: Subjective Well-Being Orientations and the Willingness to Help Close Versus Distant Others," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 2013-2037, August.
    19. Justyna Wiktorowicz & Izabela Warwas & Dariusz Turek & Iwa Kuchciak, 2022. "Does generativity matter? A meta-analysis on individual work outcomes," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 977-995, December.
    20. Massimo Aria & Michelangelo Misuraca & Maria Spano, 2020. "Mapping the Evolution of Social Research and Data Science on 30 Years of Social Indicators Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 803-831, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    inquisitiveness; generativity; happiness;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2021-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sachiko Minami (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/smkocjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.