Self-deception as a mediator of the relationship between dispositions and subjective well-being

Psychological theories of subjective well-being (SWB) have been ambiguous in their explanations of how dispositions influence happiness. This paper suggests that self-deception may serve as one important psychological variable that partly explains the disposition-subjective well-being link. Our findings suggested that self-deception significantly affected subjective well-being. In addition, our results indicated that dispositional tendencies such as affective disposition and locus of control influenced subjective well-being through self-deception. Consequently, individuals who were positively disposed or had high expectations of control tended to use self-deception which in turn increased their SWB. This research provides a preliminary yet provocative look at the explanatory power of thought processes such as self-deception on subjective well-being.