A cross-cultural experimental approach to the contribution of health, religion and personal relations to subjective satisfaction with life as a whole

In cross-cultural research on quality of life, researchers must deal with the fundamental incomparability of subjective wellbeing assessments across cultural groups. This incompatibility most probably results from an identification problem: cultural groups most likely differ in both objective achievements in different life domains as well as in the appraisal thereof. Information Integration Theory provides a framework that allows to better understand the composition of the concept of satisfaction with life as a whole across culturally different groups. In three web-based experiments, using Percentile Stimulus Metrics, it was studied how students in Algeria, Belgium and Poland integrate information on various life domains into an appraisal of satisfaction with life as a whole. It was found that different integration models coexist in the 3 studied groups, and that the prevalence of these strategies differs across groups.