So the researchers set up two experiments. In the first, they simply asked 71 European-American students and 59 South Korean students at an American university to write down the words that came to mind when they thought of Jesus. They found that Americans were much more chipper about Jesus than their South Korean counterparts. For example, about 3 percent of Americans mentioned pain or suffering on their list, compared with 15 percent of South Koreans.

In a second experiment, the researchers asked 83 South Korean students and 200 American students to fill out questionnaires that would get at major aspects of their personalities and happiness. They were then asked to fill out the same questionnaires for Jesus. Again, Americans viewed Jesus as happier, more agreeable, more extroverted, more open to experience, and more conscientious (a trait related to responsibility and carefulness) than did South Koreans. Americans also rated themselves higher than South Koreans on traits such as life satisfaction, agreeableness, extroversion and openness to experience.