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Stoicism and the Good Life

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Stoicism and the Good Life Running head: STOIC IDEOLOGY AND THE GOOD LIFE 1 1 Stoic ideology and the good life STOIC IDEOLOGY AND THE GOOD LIFE 2 2 Abstract 3 Ancient philosophy proposed a wide range of possible approaches to life which may 4 enhance well-being. Individuals can also adopt an approach to life representing a naive 5 stoic ideology, which may affect their well-being and meaning in life. We examine the 6 differential effects of stoic ideology on eudaimonic versus hedonic well-being across three 7 cultural contexts. In this pre-registered study, across samples in New Zealand (N = 636), 8 Norway (N = 290), and the US (N = 381) we found that a) stoic ideology can be validly 9 measured across all three contexts and b) converging evidence that stoic ideology was 10 negatively related to both hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being. Focusing on 11 specific relationships, we found especially pronounced effects for Taciturnity (the desireto 12 not express emotions) and Serenity (the desire to feel less emotions). This highlights the 13 important role of individuals’ orientations to emotional processing for well-being. 14 Keywords: stoic ideology; stoicism; well-being; orientations to happiness, 15 cross-cultural 16 Word count: 7062 STOIC IDEOLOGY AND THE GOOD LIFE 3 17 Stoic ideology and the good life 18 What is a good life? Over the course of human history many different answers to this 19 question have been proposed. One prominent school of thought that has had a long-lasting 20 influence in response to this questions are the Stoics. Stoic philosophy, as most ancient 21 Greek schools, lectured on a range of topics from meta-physics to logic but is today 22 possibly best known for propositions in the field of ethics. The stoics answer to the 23 question about the good life might be coarsely summarized as living a life of virtue, 24 prioritizing following one’s purpose and reason above chasing empty temporary pleasures 1 25 (Inwood, 2003). In modern psychological terms this could be seen as a preference of 26 eudaimonic well-being emphasising meaning above hedonic well-being, which emphasises 27 momentary pleasure. While few people may explicitly follow stoic doctrines in modern 28 times, stoic ideology is still implicitly embraced by a substantive number of individuals 29 (Pathak, Wieten, & Wheldon, 2017; Sherman, 2011). For example, stoic ideology has long 30 been endorsed by military personnel to reduce combat stress (Sherman, 2011). 31 Stoic Ideology. Stoic philosophy has long influenced psychology, but little 32 attention has been paid to how individuals differ in their endorsement of stoic beliefs (fora 33 thorough review of ancient stoicism and modern revivals we recommend Becker, 2017). 1 An illustrative example of this can be found in Epictetus Discourses : "In a piece of embossed silverware, what is best: the silver or the workmanship? The substance of the hand is mere flesh, but what is important is the works that the hand produces. Now, appropriate actions are of three kinds: first, those relating to mere existence, secondly, those relating to existence of a particular kind, and thirdly, those that are themselves principal duties. And what are those? Fulfilling one’s role as a citizen, marrying, having children, honouring God, taking care of one’s parents, and, in a word, having our desires and aversions, and our motives to act and or not to act, as each of them ought to be, in accordance with our nature. And what is our nature? To be people who are free, nobleminded, and self-respecting. For what other animal blushes; what other animal has a sense of shame? Pleasure should be subordinated to these duties as a servant, as an attendant, so as to arouse our zeal, so as to ensure that we consistently act in accord with nature. Epictetus, Hard, and Gill (2014) , p 205 STOIC IDEOLOGY AND THE GOOD LIFE 4 34 Most relevant to our current discussion, stoic thought has profoundly influenced Cognitive 35 Behavioral Therapy (Robertson, 2016, 2019) and plays an important role in the treatment 36 of anxiety and depression (Watts, Turnell, Kladnitski, Newby, & Andrews, 2015). This is 37 not only a implicit connection, but explicitly acknowledged by the founders of Cognitive 38 Behavioral Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Both Ellis and Beck in their 39 respective works referenced stoic philosophy and philosophers as underpinning their 40 respectiv therapeutic approaches and with an explicit recognition that stoic traits might be 41 beneficial for well-being (Beck, 1979; Ellis, 1962). While Stoicism in philosophy capturesa 42 rich belief system, stoic ideology (which is often shortened to stoicism) in psychology 43 describes a naive ideology that centers around emotional non-reactivity and non-expression. 44 Initial scales measuring this naive stoic ideology focused on a one-dimensional 45 construct assessed by past behaviors (for a review of scales see Pathak, Wieten, & 46 Wheldon, 2017). Recently a multi-faceted scale of stoic ideology has been developed, the 47 Pathak-Wieten Stoicism Ideology Scale (PWSIS Pathak, Wieten, & Wheldon, 2017). This 48 scale assesses naive stoic ideology comprised of four facets, Stoic Taciturnity (the belief 49 that emotions should not be expressed), Stoic Serenity (the belief that strong emotions 50 should not be felt), Stoic Endurance (the belief that physical suffering should be endured), 51 and Death Acceptance (accepting mortality, rather than fearing it). The PWSIS captures 52 elements of Stoic philosophy understood through modern lay perspectives, mostly focusing 53 on emotion expression and regulation. Importantly, the PWSIS captures what could be 54 called naive stoic ideologies, in the sense that it is not expected that individuals scoring 55 high on it have systematic or explicit knowledge of Stoicism as ordered school of thought. 56 The fact that the PWSIS measures these naive ideologies precludes the investigation of 57 some aspects of stoic thinking that are important in the philosophical system, such as the 58 values, beliefs about agency, or emphasis on emotional control in stressful situations (this 59 was originally a facet of the PWSIS, but showed unfavorable psychometric properties). 60 Research examining the relationship of previous measures of stoic ideology, on which the STOIC IDEOLOGY AND THE GOOD LIFE 5 61 PWSIS builds, has shown negative relationship of stoic ideology and life satisfaction as well 62 as positive relationships between stoic ideology and depression (Bei et al., 2013; Murray et 63 al., 2008). Overall, this might lead to the conclusion that embracing stoic ideology reduces 64 well-being. Nevertheless, the previous research on stoic ideology and well-being has been 65 limited in the scope of the outcomes under study, primarily by ignoring important 66 distinctions in the conceptualization of well-being in contemporary psychology. 67 Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-being. The two major dimensions of well-being 68 identified in both philosophy and psychology are hedonia and eudaimonia (Ryan &Deci, 69 2001a). Hedonic well-being is defined as experiencing subjective happiness, positive 70 feelings, and the absence of negative feelings. Overall, hedonic well-being could be 71 summarized as a life full of pleasure and free of pain. This is contrasted with eudaimonic 72 well-being which emphasizes meaning and purpose in life. The distinction of eudaimonic 73 and hedonic well-being has been shown to differentially relate to a number of variables such 74 as long-term orientation (Huta & Ryan, 2010; Joshanloo, Jovanović, & Park, 2020; Vittersø 75 & Søholt, 2011), developmental changes (LeFebvre & Huta, 2021) , and might also be 76 differentially related to health outcomes (Pancheva, Ryff, & Lucchini, 2021). Nevertheless, 77 eudaimonia and hedonia tend to be correlated at very high levels (Extremera, Ruiz-Aranda, 78 Pineda-Galán, & Salguero, 2011; see for examples: Fowers, Mollica, & Procacci, 2010; Yoon 79 et al., 2015). Taken together that while eudaimonic and hedonic well-being are not 80 necessarily independent, they appear to be the results of different underlying psychological 81 processes and may relate to different important life outcomes (Huta, 2016). 82 Stoic Ideology and Well-being. The link between stoic ideology and well-being 83 has been largely investigated through a hedonic lens (e.g, Murray et al., 2008) and was 84 found to negatively relate to life satisfaction and positively to depression (Bei et al., 2013; 85 Murray et al., 2008). While this negative effect of stoic ideology might be true for hedonic 86 well-being, individuals high in stoic ideology might prioritize meaning over pleasure, which 87 should result in a positive association with eudaimonic well-being. For example, individuals STOIC IDEOLOGY AND THE GOOD LIFE 6 88 high on stoic ideology avoid strong emotions, positive as well as negative, leading to 89 intermediate or low levels of hedonistic well-being, but considering the importance of 90 meaning within stoic philosophy they may report higher levels of meaning and purpose, 91 independent of pleasure. While no research has explored the direct relationship between 92 stoic ideology and eudaimonic well-being, some observations in previous research provide 93 some preliminary insight. For example, individuals labelled as “stoic” might subordinate 94 hedonic well-being to eudaimonic goals (for example hiding ill health to retain freedom in 95 older adults, for a discussion of the difficulties in attributing the stoic label see: Moore, 96 Grime,
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