Fig. 4.

Perception of relative personal risk is related to happiness (time 1). (a) Displayed are the Beta coefficients from a logistic regression predicting happiness, which shows that those who report low perceived relative personal risk (blue) are happier. Perceived public risk (red) is not associated with happiness. These associations are also portrayed in (b & c). Here, the Y and X axis display residuals from the same model, which includes all demographic controls. Clouds represent confidence intervals. (d) Adding sense of control (orange) to the model reveals that sense of control is the strongest factor predicting happiness and reduces the association between perceived relative personal risk and happiness. Indeed, a formal mediation analysis shows that (e) sense of control mediated the relationship between perceived relative personal risk and happiness. Regressors are ordered from the largest magnitude to the smallest. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001, ***p < 0.0001, Error Bars SEM