Fear of happiness

Fear of happiness or cherophobia is an aversion to being happy.
On reason for this is a belief that the experience of happiness will cause bad things to happen. This belief is thought to be more prevalent in non-Western cultures. In Western cultures, such as American culture, "it is almost taken for granted that happiness is one of the most important values guiding people’s lives." Western cultures are more driven by an urge to maximize happiness and minimize sadness. Failing to appear happy is often a cause for concern. Its value is echoed through Western positive psychology and research on subjective well-being.
Non-Western cultures
In non-Western cultures, happiness is valued less. There are four major reasons why happiness may be feared by various people and cultures: "believing that being happy will provoke bad things to happen; that happiness will make you a worse person; that expressing happiness is bad for you and others; and that pursuing happiness is bad for you and others". For example, "some people—in Western and Eastern cultures—are wary of happiness because they believe that Bad things, such as unhappiness, suffering, and death, tend to happen to happy people.”.
These findings "call into question the notion that happiness is the ultimate goal, a belief echoed in any number of articles and self-help publications about whether certain choices are likely to make you happy". Also, "In cultures that believe worldly happiness to be associated with sin, shallowness, and moral decline will actually feel less satisfied when their lives are (by other standards) going well.", so, beliefs such as "fear of happiness" have important implications for measuring happiness across cultures, and ranking nations on happiness scores.

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