Positive Attitude and Wellbeing: A Life Cycle Analysis of Individual’s Healthy and Happy Life Expectancy for Brazil and Mexico

This paper investigates the relationship between positive attitude and the remaining time lived healthily and happily over individual’s life cycle for Brazil and Mexico. Building on principles derived from theories of reasoned action and subjective norms, coupled with the multidimensional concept of attitude from Cacioppo & Berntson (1994), we estimate an empirical measure of multidimensional attitude based on three levels of perception: the self, the relations to social networks, and the surrounding environment. Our empirical measure of multidimensional attitude (estimated by means of GoM models) is then used to evaluate differences in healthy (HLE) and happy life expectancy (GLE) over the individual’s life cycle (estimated by Sullivan Method) according to the degree of one’s attitude. At last, we apply demographic decomposition techniques to estimate to what extent morbidity compression is happening in each country and how sensitive this trend is to attitudinal levels. Using the World Values Survey (Brazil 1997, 2006; Mexico 1996, 2005), we find evidence of a positive association between positive attitude and HLE and GLE, although the association is not linear over individual’s life cycle for health. Brazilians experience higher proportion of time happy and in good health then Mexicans, regardless of attitudinal status.