How positive beliefs about the world relate to well-being and social connections—A genetically informative approach

Abstract

Positive world beliefs (e.g., believing in a safe world) are associated with higher well-being and more social connections. While these associations have often been interpreted as causal, little is known about their origins. Here, we utilized a large ( N ∼ 9000) Swedish twin sample to investigate the role of familial confounding (genetic influences and family environmental effects influencing both primals and social well-being) and test whether associations are in line with a causal effect. Indeed, positive world beliefs were associated with higher well-being, reduced loneliness, and less social isolation. When adjusting for familial confounding, associations were substantially attenuated, but remained significant—consistent with a causal association. Bivariate twin models strengthened this finding, indicating that genetic effects explain approximately half of the covariation. When also accounting for personality differences in addition to familial confounding, a small—yet significant—association remained. These findings highlight that familial influences and personality differences explain a substantial part of the observed associations between primals and social well-being, while also lending support for a small potentially causal effect—though the directionality of this effect remains unknown. We discuss the implications of these findings for primals research and positive psychology.