Situational experience around the world: A replication and extension in 62 countries

Objective The current study seeks to replicate and extend principal findings reported in The World at 7:00, a project that examined the psychological experience of situations in 20 countries.

Method Data were collected from participants in 62 countries (N = 15,318), recruited from universities by local collaborators to complete the study via a custom-built website using 42 languages.

Results Several findings of the previous study were replicated. The average reported situational experience around the world was mildly positive. The same countries tended to be most alike in reported situational experience (r = .60) across the two studies, among the countries included in both. As in the previous study, the homogeneity of reported situational experience was significantly greater within than between countries, although the difference was small. The previously reported exploratory finding that negative aspects of situations varied more across countries than positive aspects did not replicate. Correlations between aspects of reported situational experience and country-level average value scores, personality, and demographic variables were largely similar between the two studies.

Conclusion The findings underscore the importance of cross-cultural situational research and the need to replicate its results, and highlight the complex interplay of culture and situational experience.