Two faces of human happiness: Explicit and implicit life satisfaction

Evidence is provided for implicit aspects of life satisfaction. In study 1 the implicit life satisfaction measure (ILS): (i) showed moderate reliability as well as convergent and incremental validity; (ii) appeared to be affected by temporary mood and social desirability to a lesser extent than explicit measures; and (iii) showed cultural invariance in contrast to explicit measures that revealed cross-cultural differences, as found in previous research. Study 2 showed that the ILS replicated theoretically expected differences between those known to have encountered chronically negative life experiences (North Korean defectors) and those without such experiences (South Koreans). Implications of these findings for explicit and ILS are discussed.