Relationship between Self-discrepancy and Subjective Well-being

People can differently act online than in real-life. Their virtual identities may allow them to express themselves more freely. In this perspective, there is a self-discrepancy between virtual- and real-life. Due to the anonymity, people can feel free to express who actually they are online without considering social pressure. Especially, for those people who live in a repressed society, virtual-selves can play a significant role to achieve their well-being. For this reason, a self-discrepancy between actual- and virtual-self related to well-being was studied. With 183 survey responses, political freedom, extraversion and neuroticism are identified as significant influencers of subjective well-being (SWB). In addition, an increase in self-discrepancy between virtual- and real-life for 'unhappy' people leads to an increased online well-being, which is contradictory to Higgins' self-discrepancy theory.