What Matters Most to Positive Feelings? R-E-S-P-E-C-T

A vast study of people in 158 countries shows that among the nonmaterial personal needs of respect, autonomy, and social support, respect is the strongest predictor of positive feelings, say Weiting Ng of SIM University in Singapore and Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Gallup Organization. In the survey of 838,151 people, respect levels were gauged through respondents’ answers to the question of whether they had been “treated with respect” the previous day.