One main activity of the Modern Stoicism organization is carrying out research on the impact of adopting Stoic practices, perspectives, and principles on those who do so. Every year we run the Stoic Week online class, and we also gather valuable data through the surveys before and after participants engage in the class. Tim LeBon is our lead quantitative researcher, and he does invaluable service in compiling and interpreting the data collected, producing a set of Stoic Week Reports. This is the second report for 2019, which you can download a copy of (with all of the appendices) by clicking here.
Introduction
A strong positive relationship between Stoicism and well-being has been well documented in previous Stoic Week reports. This article analyses the findings from analysing questionnaires from the start of Stoic week 2019, and will report on whether this relationship has been maintained. In 2019 we obtained additional information about the relationship between Stoicism and anger, as measured by the Anger Disorder Scale (ADS-S). A second innovation this year was the introduction of another iteration of the Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS v5.0). This report will indicate which of the 60 items of the new SABS scale are the most and least associated with life satisfaction, flourishing, positive and negative emotions and with anger – in other words, which items appear to be the most active ingredients of Stoicism in these respects. The other reports in this series will discuss the effect of taking part in Stoic Week (part 3) and summarise participant feedback and suggest future directions of research (part 4). Details about the scales used are given in the Appendices of this report.
What Were My Scores Like Compared to the Average?
If you took part in Stoic Week, you will have been given average scores at the start of the week for other participants at the start of a previous Stoic Week for some of the measures. But we didn’t have the scores for Stoic Week 2019 then (obviously!), and we didn’t have comparative scores for the Anger Scale or for the new SABS scale. So, here you are. How do you compare with the average score?
- Life Satisfaction (SWL) 23
- Emotions (SPANE) 5
- Flourish 43
- Anger (ADS-S) 34
- Stoicism (SABS 5.0) 300
The New SABS Scale
Stoic Week 2019 saw the introduction of SABS 5.0, a 60-item questionnaire described in Appendix A. This scale builds on the work done with the invaluable work Ray DiGiuseppe and others to eliminate items with inferior psychometric properties. We are also working towards validating the SABS 5.0 and providing sub-scales (for example “Stoic Worldview” and “Values awareness and Stoic mindfulness”. As the work on subscales is still provisional, it will be reported at a later date.
Stoicism and Anger
Theoretically, we would expect Stoic attitude to help with anger management. We would anticipate that Stoics would not just act in a less angry way, they would also get angry less often than non-Stoics because non-Stoics often get angry at things beyond their control.
Previous Stoic Week research results have indeed suggested a strong inverse relationship between Stoicism and anger. However, this has relied on the single anger item question in the SPANE questionnaire. Since anger management is potentially an important benefit of practising Stoicism, the relationship between Stoicism and anger warranted further investigation. Consequently, this year we asked participants to fill in a validated anger questionnaire, the 18-item ADS-S (see Appendix B) to understand the relationship between Stoicism and anger when anger is measured in a more robust manner and which also separates out the degree to which people feel anger, the degree to which they feel vengeful, and the extent to which they act angrily. Table 1 below gives the results.
| Anger overall (ADS-S) | Anger-In (ADS-S subscale 1) | Anger Vengeance (ADS-S subscale 2) | Anger Reactivity (ADS-S subscale S) | Anger single item (SPANE) |
| -.44 | -.45 | -.31 | -.35 | -.32 |
Table 1: Correlation and Stoicism and Anger at the start of Stoic Week 2019 (1725 participants)
The more sophisticated measure of anger provided by the ADS-S than the single scale item in the SPANE gives a significantly stronger relationship between Stoicism and a lack of anger (.44 compared to .32). The ADS-S divides anger into 3 subscales. Subscale 1, the anger-in scale, represents the degree to which people are likely to feel anger and repress, or not express their anger. Stoics are particularly less likely to do this (.45 correlation), putting a lie to the notion that Stoics repress feelings (the “stiff upper lip”). Stoics are also likely to be less vengeful (subscale 2) and less reactive with their anger (subscale 3). It will be interesting to see how the scales and subscales change when people try to practice Stoicism in Stoic Week. We would predict a reduction in anger and in particular, a large reduction in subscale 1 (anger-in).
Stoicism and Well-Being
We can tell how Stoic someone is by their score on the SABS 5.0. By measuring their well-being at the same time, we can determine the extent to which Stoicism is associated with well-being.
| Flourishing | Emotions (SPANE) | Life Satisfaction (SWL) | |
| STOIC ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOURS |
2019: 0.64
2018: 0.54 2017: 0.47 | 2019: 0.59 2018: 0.45 2017: 0.43 | 2019: 0.50 2018: 0.39 2017: 0.36 |
Table 2 Overall association of Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours with various scales (2019 Stoic Week compared to 2018 and 2017 Stoic Weeks)
As table 2 shows, Stoicism is associated to a very high degree of Flourishing and a balance of positive over emotions and (to a slightly lesser degree) satisfaction with life. Over the years as we have worked to improve the SABs, the correlation coefficients are somewhat higher using the new SABS 5.0.
Stoicism and Emotions
We can also see which emotions are most associated with Stoicism. The trends found in previous years continue to be supported. Stoicism is not just associated with not feeling bad, it is also strongly associated with feeling contented and positive.
| Emotion | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Negative | -.47 | -0.35 | -0.36 | -0.29 |
| Bad | -.42 | -0.31 | -0.32 | -0.28 |
| Unpleasant | -.39 | -0.29 | -0.27 | -0.24 |
| Sad | -.38 | -0.26 | -0.28 | -0.26 |
| Angry | -.32 | -0.24 | -0.27 | -0.24 |
| Afraid | -.34 | -0.24 | -0.23 | -0.26 |
| Contented | .49 | 0.36 | 0.33 | 0.35 |
| Positive | .49 | 0.36 | 0.32 | 0.31 |
| Happy | .43 | 0.35 | 0.29 | 0.28 |
| Good | .47 | 0.34 | 0.32 | 0.32 |
| Pleasant | .41 | 0.34 | 0.32 | 0.3 |
| Joyful | .41 | 0.32 | 0.28 | 0.26 |
Once again, as we have continued to revise and improve the SAB the correlation coefficients with the various measures emotions have increased.
Table 3: Correlation of SABS 5.0 scores and emotions as measured in SPANE
Degree of Stoicism and Well-being
The above findings lend considerable support to the view that Stoicism is associated with higher degrees of well-being and less anger. But how much difference does it make? We attempted to tease this out by looking at the differences in well-being for those who are the most and least Stoic. This is shown in table 4 below.
| Participant Scores | |||||
| Ranking on the SABS 5.0 | Life Satisfaction | Emotions | Anger | Flourishing | Stoicism |
| Top 10% | 28 | 14 | 26 | 50 | 371 |
| Top quarter | 27 | 11 | 28 | 49 | 351 |
| Top half | 26 | 9 | 31 | 47 | 331 |
| Average | 23 | 5 | 34 | 43 | 300 |
| Bottom half | 21 | 2 | 37 | 39 | 269 |
| Bottom quarter | 19 | 0 | 39 | 37 | 257 |
| Bottom 10% | 17 | -2 | 41 | 33 | 235 |
Table 4: Difference in life satisfaction, the balance of emotions, anger, flourishing according to the degree of Stoicism (Start of Stoic Week 2019, n=1725)
Those who are the most Stoic (top 10%) are much higher in well-being and lower in anger than the those in the top 10%. One possible way to read table 4 is to say that the biggest gains are to be made with those people who are least Stoic. If someone moved from the bottom half to just average levels of Stoicism, one would anticipate quite significant gains in well-being – assuming that causation goes in the direction of being Stoic to well-being, which may not be completely founded.
Stoicism’s Most Active Ingredients
Which Stoic attitudes and beliefs are most associated with life satisfaction, flourishing, positive emotions and the absence of anger? By finding the correlation between SABS 5.0 items and each measure, it is possible to answer these questions. Tables 5 -8 below provide the answers for each scale. Note that since these associations are correlations, we cannot be sure of the direction of causation, so these findings require a certain amount of qualification.
| # | SABS Item | Life Satisfaction Correlation |
| 19 | I spend quite a lot of time dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past.* | 0.46 |
| 33 | I spend quite a lot of time worrying about the future.* | 0.42 |
| 26 | When I have a problem, I am good at taking constructive action in a timely manner. | 0.41 |
| 41 | If things don’t go well for me, I can’t lead a good life.* | 0.35 |
| 38 | When a negative thought enters my mind, I remind myself that it is just an interpretation of the situation. | 0.35 |
| 48 | Even when I can’t do anything more about a problem, I still worry about it a lot.* | 0.35 |
Table 5: Most active Stoic ingredients of Life Satisfaction
If you wanted to look at one element of Stoicism indicative of satisfaction with life, it would be someone not dwelling on the past
| # | SABS Item | Flourishing correlation |
| 26 | When I have a problem, I am good at taking constructive action in a timely manner. | 0.54 |
| 12 | I usually do the right thing. | 0.46 |
| 19 | I spend quite a lot of time dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past.* | 0.45 |
| 22 | When making an important decision I ask myself “What really matters here?” | 0.44 |
| 33 | I spend quite a lot of time worrying about the future.* | 0.43 |
| 14 | I am committed to helping humanity in general. | 0.43 |
| 38 | When a negative thought enters my mind, I remind myself that it is just an interpretation of the situation. | 0.43 |
Table 6: Most active SABS ingredients in terms of Flourishing
The single element of Stoicism indicative of flourishing is taking constructive action in a timely manner,
The absence of worrying is most associated with having a positive balance of emotions.
| 33 | I spend quite a lot of time worrying about the future.* | 0.56 |
| 19 | I spend quite a lot of time dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past.* | 0.56 |
| 48 | Even when I can’t do anything more about a problem I still worry about it a lot.* | 0.52 |
| 38 | When a negative thought enters my mind, I remind myself that it is just an interpretation of the situation. | 0.43 |
| 41 | If things don’t go well for me, I can’t lead a good life.* | 0.42 |
Table 7: Most active SABS ingredients in terms of emotions
| # | SABS Item | Anger |
| 19 | I spend quite a lot of time dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past.* | -0.46 |
| 33 | I spend quite a lot of time worrying about the future.* | -0.42 |
| 48 | Even when I can’t do anything more about a problem, I still worry about it a lot.* | -0.41 |
| 41 | If things don’t go well for me, I can’t lead a good life.* | -0.34 |
| 38 | When a negative thought enters my mind, I remind myself that it is just an interpretation of the situation. | -0.34 |
| 26 | When I have a problem, I am good at taking constructive action in a timely manner. | -0.33 |
| 15 | I treat everyone fairly. | -0.32 |
Table 8: Most active SABS ingredients in terms of emotions
Dwelling on the past is most associated with anger.
Conclusions
These findings are particularly significant as they indicate the association of degrees of Stoicism with other qualities such as life satisfaction and anger. A key finding is that Stoicism is not associated with repressing anger and so it puts a lie to the “stiff upper lip” notion. It also gives participants comparative scores for SABS 5.0 and the anger scale, which were not available at the time they took part in Stoic Week
They are taken from a large sample (1765 participants) of varying demographics and allegiance to Stoicism. They are however, a self-selecting sample and more likely to be allied to Stoicism than the general public. Moreover, since they are correlational they do not indicate the direction of causation. The next report in the series will provide information about how these measures change after participants have taken part in Stoic Week.
Tim LeBon is the author of Wise Therapy and Achieve Your Potential with Positive Psychology. He is a philosophical life coach with a private practice in London and also an accredited CBT psychotherapist working in the NHS. He is a founder member of the Modern Stoicism team.
