Personality and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from South Korea

Although the statistically significant relationship between personality traits and subjective well-being (i.e., self-reported
happiness and life satisfaction) is well-known in the field of positive psychology, some scholars still cast doubt on the
external validity of this finding and the strength of personality dimensions vis-à-vis other individual-level determinants
of subjective well-being such as income, employment status, marital status, self-reported health, and so on. Using a nationally
representative, face-to-face survey fielded in South Korea in 2009, we find that personality traits (measured by the Five-factor
Model)—particularly, Emotional Stability and Extraversion—are positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction,
after controlling for other covariates. The effects of personality traits are often on par with, and sometimes even greater
than, those of other well-known determinants.