Wellness, Fairness, and Worthiness: Lessons from Science and Inspiration from Ukraine
Growing up in Argentina, under a fascist and anti-Semitic dictatorship, it was obvious to me that injustice, state terror, and military brutality were the main enemies of the people. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were luxuries only the most privileged could afford, typically accomplices of the regime. Death threats, kidnappings, and disappearances by paramilitary squads have a way of focusing the mind. Survival becomes your sole purpose.
Like many Jews before me, I had to flee my country of origin due to persecution and violence. And like many Jews before me, I benefited from refuge provided by the state of Israel. Ironically, I had to flee the country that offered refuge to my grandparents, who escaped pogroms in Russia over a century ago. They escaped Bessarabia, which was part of the Russian Empire. Their village of Kalarash – now part of Moldova -- is not very far from Ukraine, where Russians again are committing atrocities, this time not against Jews, but against an entire country.
Because of my history, I always knew experientially and intuitively that without fairness there is no wellness, but over the years I developed a scholarly interest in the topic as well. At first, I was interested in theoretical connections between happiness and justice. Later, with colleague Salvatore Di Martino and doctoral student Mike Scarpa we explored empirical connections between wellness and fairness. From lived experience, we all know that when we are subjected to an injustice there is little head space for self-expansion and personal growth, let alone happiness. At the personal level, there is ample evidence that conditions of justice increase happiness and conditions of injustice increase misery. But our team wanted to know if these connections would also be reflected at the national level. In one study we demonstrated that social justice is a significant predictor of life satisfaction across 28 European Union countries.
With the connection between wellness and fairness firmly established at the personal and national levels, our team set out to explore the mechanisms by which fairness gets translated into wellness. We were asking the following question: what are the psychological experiences elicited by fairness that make us happy? We hypothesized that feelings of worthiness were key to fairness and wellness. By worthiness we mean feeling valued and adding value. Worthiness, or mattering, consists of feeling valued by, and adding value to, self and others. Feeling appreciated, respected, and treated with dignity is key to mattering, but so is the ability to make a contribution to self and friends, relatives, co-workers, and community members.
We conducted two studies to test the hypothesis that worthiness mediates between wellness and fairness. The first study examined the experiences of individual people. Using a representative sample of U.S. adults, we discovered a strong direct effect of worthiness on wellness, and an indirect effect of fairness on wellness through worthiness. This means that fairness makes people feel like they matter, that they are worthy individuals; and feeling worthy, in turn, makes you feel good about life. The findings confirm the intuition that few things are more important in life than feeling like you matter. The Black Lives Matter movement has given political expression to this fundamental human need. Feeling respected, simply by virtue of being a human being, and enabling you to engage in community life are essential for thriving. Feeling valued and adding value are equally important. When we are treated fairly, we are made to feel worthy, and when we feel worthy, our well-being improves because something fundamental about our humanity is honored.
The second study explored this dynamic at the national level. This time, we used data from 41 OECD countries. The results show that two crucial components of worthiness, autonomy and social capital, mediate between fairness and wellness. As in the earlier study, fairness predicted life satisfaction directly, but this time, also indirectly through autonomy and social capital. These two variables are constitutive of mattering.
Autonomy is part of feeling valued and adding value. Self-determination represents the fact that we are free to make our own decisions and chart the course of our lives. We feel valued when we are given the chance to exercise choice, and we add value when we put that choice into action. Social capital, in turn, is all about building community by both, adding value and feeling valued. The more countries uphold policies of social justice, the more people feel free to pursue their aspirations, and the more people trust one another and engage in community building. In both studies we found empirical evidence for the hypothesis that fairness leads to worthiness, and worthiness leads to wellness.
In summary, we can say that wellness, worthiness, and fairness are essential components of the human experience. When one or more of these foundational elements is missing, people go to considerable length to recover them. Witness the bravery of the Ukrainian people. When they are interviewed about the Russian invasion, they often speak about their fight for dignity. Their most fundamental human rights have been violated; and as a people, they are resolved to protect their self-determination. We are inspired by their courage to combat the ultimate injustice, the killing of innocent civilians. They are teaching the world that fairness and worthiness -- defining aspects of the human experience -- are worth fighting for. Their sense of mattering sustain their courage. But they cannot do it alone. The world must show solidarity and provide support to the Ukrainian people. Let their struggle remind us to stand against despots, demagogues, and dictators, wherever they are. Let us show the Ukrainian people how much they matter to us, and how much we honor their valor.
Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is an award-winning academic and author. He is also a coach, consultant and a researcher. His latest book, co-authored with his wife, Dr. Ora Prilleltensky, is How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Press here to order.