University of London Birkbeck Business School Economist Gaygysyz Batyrov and Estonian Business School Senior Research Fellow Luca Andriani agree. Their “Corruption & Life Satisfaction/Evidence from a Transition Survey" finds that happier individuals are more averse to corruption.

Ashyrov and Adriani explain that institutions are more functional when citizens and institutions are corruption-averse. This leads to more trust in institutions, another factor in happiness scores. When institutions are trustworthy, people become more corruption-averse, whether or not they are happy. The researchers find that corruption aversion is strongest amongst happy people. The U.N. World Happiness Report refers to these kinds of cyclical relationships as cycles of virtue, finding that low corruption and well-functioning institutions are two of the fundamentals of........

© Psychology Today