The Value of Autonomy for the Good Life. An Empirical Investigation of Autonomy and Life Satisfaction in Europe
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The Value of Autonomy for the Good Life. An Empirical Investigation of Autonomy and Life Satisfaction in Europe Leonie C. Steckermeier1 Accepted: 13 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This paper examines the association of opportunity and choice enhancing societal conditions and perceived autonomy with life satisfaction in Europe. Building on the capability approach, I investigate whether the positive effects of six basic functionings—safety, friendship, health, financial security, leisure, and respect—on people’s life satisfaction are weaker when people have more opportunity and choice. This paper addresses two main questions: (1) Are people more satisfied with their life when they have more opportunity and choice? (2) Do basic functionings play a smaller role for life satisfaction in societies that enable more opportunity and choice and for individuals with more perceived autonomy? The analyses are based on the European Quality of Life Survey (2016), covering 36,460 individuals in 33 European countries and using multilevel linear regressions. My study finds that both choice and opportunity enhancing societal conditions and individual’s perceived autonomy are positively associated with on life satisfaction. Further, all six basic functionings are conducive to individual life satisfaction. The positive effects of health, financial security, respect, and friendship are reduced when people experience a great deal of autonomy over their lives. Societal conditions that provide people with more opportunity and choice further lower the positive effects of financial security, leisure, respect, and safety on individual life satisfaction. This corroborates the importance the capability approach attributes to individual opportunities and freedom of choice. Keywords Autonomy · Life satisfaction · Capability approach · Opportunity and choice · Basic functionings · Europe
1 Introduction Autonomy, understood as the ability to decide how to live one’s own life, plays a fundamental role in shaping well-being. Individual perceived autonomy has been shown to be related to the three general components of subjective well-being (Diener 1984): perceived autonomy enhances life satisfaction (Conzo et al. 2017; Delhey and Steckermeier 2016; Maridal, 2017; Verme 2009; Welzel and Inglehart 2010); increases positive affect * Leonie C. Steckermeier [email protected] 1
Otto-Von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Zschokkestr. 32, 39104 Magdeburg, Germany
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like happiness (Delhey and Steckermeier 2016; Maridal 2017); and protects from negative affect such as depressiveness (Chaves et al. 2018; Karim et al. 2015). Further, people who feel they have autonomy over their lives show a more positive future time perspective (Coudin and Lima 2011), are more trusting toward others (Chaves et al. 2018; Conzo et al. 2017; Karim et al. 2015), and are less prone to conflict thinking (Spruyt et al. 2018). Increasing individual autonomy and its relevance for social change also constitutes a major
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