This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: New research finds that people are far more likely to report suicidal ideation when they perceive their lives as getting worse relative to their recent past, rather than because of their income, age or health status alone. South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed nations.
The U.K. study, recently published in Risk Analysis, analyzed annual observations of 14,552 people from 2018 to 2023 in the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KoWePS). Distributed by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and Seoul National University, KoWePS tracks socioeconomic and mental health factors. Researchers tracked each individual's self-reported life satisfaction (measured on a 0–10 "ladder of life") and interpreted it using Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT), which holds that people judge outcomes as gains or losses against a personal reference point and feel losses more intensely than equal gains.
"These results suggest that trajectory matters more than a single snapshot of someone's life," says Mamata Parhi, a professor. "Two people with identical income and health can face very different psychological risks depending on which direction their life feels like it's heading, and how strongly they experience that change as a loss." The findings suggest suicide-prevention screening could shift from monitoring static risk factors like income or diagnosis alone to tracking recent changes in a person's self-reported well-being and sensitivity to setbacks. The authors suggest that behavioral markers of loss aversion could help flag at-risk individuals before ideation escalates.
Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile → Master's in physics with research experience.
Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
