The comeback effect: How happy are people who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection?

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v12i2.2019

Abstract

There is already a large body of research on the dramatic negative effects of COVID-19 on peoples’ mental and physical health. Millions of people have died, and the pandemic has negatively influenced the lives of billions of people. Luckily however, the vast majority of people infected with the virus, recovers. The happiness and wellbeing of these people have not been extensively studied. In the current paper, we ask the question: Are people who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection happier than those who have not been infected at all? Building on previous research on hedonic adaptation and counterfactual thinking, we hypothesize, and find, that those who have had an infection appear slightly happier than others.  The study relies on two surveys conducted in Sweden during the pandemic in 2020 (n=1029) and 2021 (n=1788).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2022-05-31

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Micael Dahlen, Helge Thorbjørnsen, Petra von Heideken Wågert, Charlotta Hellström, Birgitta Kerstis, Daniel Lindberg, Jonas Stier, Maria Elvén

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The license prevents others from using the work for profit without the express consent of the author(s). The license also prevents the creation of derivative works without the express consent of the author(s). Note that derivative works are very similar in nature to the original. Merely quoting (and appropriately referencing) a passage of a work is not making a derivative of it.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).