Fear of Happiness: How Early Life, Personality, and Culture Shape Our Ability to Enjoy Joy, and Its Link to Depression and Anxiety. Illustration by the author.
Fear of happiness (FOH), also referred to as aversion to happiness, is the belief that experiencing or expressing positive emotions may lead to negative outcomes. For instance , individuals high in FOH may avoid feeling or expressing joy because they fear it could bring misfortune, reflecting early experiences or culturally reinforced beliefs.
Recent research indicates that FOH is strongly associated with psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and anhedonia. Collins and Coster (2025) conducted a meta-analysis synthesizing data from 26 samples (over 6,600 participants ), although not all represented independent studies, to examine the relationship between FOH and mental health outcomes. They found robust cross-sectional associations between FOH and depressive and anxious symptoms, suggesting that individuals who are more averse to happiness tend to experience higher levels of psychological distress. However , longitudinal evidence is limited and shows smaller effects, so it remains unclear whether FOH contributes causally to mood disorders or primarily co-occurs with them. While FOH appears to be a distinct construct, the extent to which it predicts outcomes independently of traits such as neuroticism or general negative affect is not fully established.
While Collins and Coster illuminate the psychological outcomes of FOH, Joshanloo ( 2022) explores the factors that shape it. In a multi-national study of 871 adults across ten countries, predictors of FOH included childhood unhappiness, perfectionism, loneliness, and supernatural or collectivistic beliefs (e.g. karma, black magic ). Childhood unhappiness remained predictive even after controlling for current loneliness, highlighting the long-term impact of early life experiences on emotional beliefs. Cultural context also played a role, collectivistic attitudes toward happiness were associated with higher FOH, suggesting that some populations are more susceptible due to culturally shaped beliefs about emotional expression.
Taken together, these studies suggest a pathway in which early life experiences, personality traits, and cultural beliefs contribute to the development of FOH, which in turn is associated with elevated depressive and anxious symptoms. This underscores FOH as a distinct belief system with meaningful implications for mental health. Although intervention research is still emerging , addressing maladaptive beliefs about happiness may help reduce distress and enhance positive emotional experiences. Considering individual developmental histories and cultural contexts could further improve the effectiveness of tailored interventions.
References:
Collins, A. C., & Coster, C. (2025). When happiness becomes aversive: A meta-analysis of fear of happiness in depression and anxiety. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8cng4_v1
Joshanloo, M. (2022). Predictors of aversion to happiness: New insights from a multi-national study. Motivation and Emotion, 46, 763–776. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09954-1