The main objective of this research was to determine the mediating role of social axioms between basic psychological needs and subjective well-being in the Romanian cultural context and to conduct a cross-cultural comparative analysis between the Romanian and UK cultural contexts. During the development of this research, the world experienced a pandemic.

As a result, the author formulated an additional objective, analysed through the prism of a natural experiment with the variable COVID-19. Hence, comparing axioms, needs, and well-being before and during the pandemic provides unique insights into the impact of a global crisis on these variables.

The results show that in Romanian culture, only social cynicism mediates the relationship between needs and well-being. In the UK cultural context, both social cynicism and reward for application mediate the relationship between needs and well-being.

Subjective well-being tends to be associated with high linguistic performance in Romanian and English. For both Romanian and UK participants, social cynicism mediates the relationship between the need for competence and well-being, leading to an indirect effect of improving well-being.

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