What Makes Life Meaningful?

Jan Berendsen, Robert Dur and Iris Kesternich
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Jan Berendsen: University of Hamburg

No 26-065/I, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: It has been argued that the search for meaning is among the strongest drivers of human behavior. We ran a survey on a large representative sample to assess how important it is for people to lead a meaningful life, what makes life meaningful, what differentiates meaning from happiness, and whether people who find meaning important lead different lives than people who prioritize happiness. We collect three types of data: open questions, vignettes, and self-reported meaning and happiness. We show that people care strongly about both meaning and happiness and that the drivers of a meaningful and happy life differ in important ways. Moreover, we find interesting gender differences and a substantial underestimation by women of how much children contribute to men's meaning and happiness.

Keywords: Meaning; Happiness; Survey data; Vignette study; Large Language Models; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D00 D9 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-09-06
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