One thing I noticed, comparing the US to the top ranked (mostly Nordic) countries: There was no clear pattern in "positive emotions" scores. Indeed, the US might be above average. But the US was far above the Nordic countries in "negative emotion" scores. So perhaps it is more accurate to conclude the US is "more unhappy" vs. "less happy".
Also the variance in the US was much higher - so it's more a subset of the population dragging things down.
This is consistent with a story that the major factor in the rankings is that the support and security of Nordic states reduce downward variance in unhappiness (e.g. for the poor, & sick).
Of course there could be many other explanations too (e.g. the US having a competitive culture where people who don't succeed above average are less satisfied).
(Too bad no one will ever read this comment, due to HNs recency bias).
Thank god the Netherlands is only #5. It’s high, but not too high. That said, the Finns probably got surveyed right after exiting the sauna. Is that fair?
It really is - your life needs deep importance. Work is one of the things that provides that. If you feel like you're not important you're going to be unhappy.
One can find fulfilment in anything. You may think someone lazing on a beach all day is wasting their life, and they may think the same about a drone who is sitting in a windowless office for 60 hours a week from age 21 to 65 so their bosses can get richer. Family, community, art, relaxation, work - what is important in life is entirely up to you.
I used to think like that. It made me miserable. What's made me happy has been to come to terms with it not mattering one iota whether it feels like I'm important.
That's not to say it's not a good feeling when someone finds utility in something I've done, but a nice walk also gives me the same good feeling.
Switzerland has a slightly high suicide rate (not the best inverse metric of happiness but a correlation on unhappiness at least) for a country with such high standards of living, so if we look into suicide rates over time we also see a conundrum that over the past 20+ years the suicide rate is overall decreasing but has mostly flattened out. But from what I've observed anecdotally it still has problems like other developed countries with legacy industries declining (see: watchmakers and other artisanal crafts trades rather than mining) where boomers in the country are pretty miserable and that will probably be noticed in macro level statistics.
I would speculate Republicans are wildly happier when "their team is 'winning'" and Democrats would have a boost in happiness with Democrats in power, but nowhere near the swing of Republicans. Democrats, IMO, are more aware of the *real* current and longterm problems the US faces while Republicans listen to whatever Republicans say the "problems" are - "problems" that are too often very outlandish and not based in reality.
I agree that both probably swing depending on who’ “winning”, although I bet that generally the Dems tend to be significantly less happy and therefore swing less, relatively.
I suspect the results would be skewed significantly by whether or not the questions asked seemed overtly political in nature. If you probe people in general quality of life measures and carefully avoid loaded language, you’d likely find both sides are suffering in the US in real terms due to cost of living and loneliness crises. These are trends that have been prevailing since at least the 80s and were accelerated by mass media and the Internet.
But tribal loyalty is a powerful force, so as soon as the questions or questioner appears partisan in any way, people form ranks for “their side” and you’d be hard pressed to get an honest response, least of all one that reflects badly on their team at the helm.
With that caveat, the conclusion there is that "The liberal-conservative happiness gap persists across all demographics".
Meaning there is no demographic category in which liberals are happier than conservatives — "conservative gays and lesbians report higher happiness than heterosexual liberals".
If our happiness is connected to political party affiliation, we're in big trouble. The actual party doesn't matter. The true hallmark of totalitarianism is when every aspect of civil society is politicized.
> true hallmark of totalitarianism is when every aspect of civil society is politicized
No? The true hallmarks of totalitarianism are a lack of political competition (usually due to repression) and the state controlling “all aspects of society, including the family, religion, education, business, private property, and social relationships” [1].
Ancient Athens was a famously political society. It was not totalitarian.
Huh... Finland is #1 in happiness but has the third highest suicide rate in Western Europe (behind Belgium, France, and Switzerland) [1]. Belgium is medium happy, but has the 15th highest suicide rate in the world, substantially above the US. The UK is second lowest happiness, but has one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe. The difference in happiness between Finland and the US appears huge, yet their suicide rates are similar (Finland is next after the US of the countries on the happiness list)
I vaguely recall reading before that happiest countries had increased suicide rates because if everyone around you is doing great and you're not, it increases feelings of shame and hopelessness, that there's something wrong or broken with you specifically. If life is tough and everyone is struggling, it sucks but feels less personally damning.
Anecdotally, the most depressed times in my life were when circumstances were objectively fine and I still couldn't manage to feel any less than terrible. Like, "This is as good as it's ever going to get???" Ironically having actual problems gave me both something to attribute the bad feelings to, and hope that I would feel better once I resolved the problems.
> The Gallup World Poll, which remains the principal source of data in this report, asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and the
worst possible as a 0. Each respondent provides a numerical response on this scale, referred to as the Cantril Ladder. Typically, around 1,000 responses are gathered annually for each country. Weights are used to construct population-representative national averages for each year in each country.
We base our happiness ranking on a three year average of these life evaluations since the larger sample size enables more precise estimates
Yeah, when people try to bring these "X country is happier than Y" studies into conversations, I always tell them: the only thing those studies capture is how well the population's been trained to report that they're happy.
The training goes the other way in the US. Politicians, advertisers and the media all have a stake in telling you how unhappy you should be and it's surprisingly effective.
Happiness can be studied in a lot of ways, and none of them is complete or accurate. Momentary happiness is possible in a miserable life and vice versa.
I suspect this survey does tell us something over time, if methodology is stable.
I don't think this survey tells us anything at all. Happiness is hard to define, personal, and capricious. It's better to not have studies than to have pretend science that people mistake for real science.
Maybe not going bankrupt because of medical expenses as the only first world country with universal healthcare? When it comes to the hierarchy of needs, not dying because of unaffordable or unavailable healthcare I’m sure ranks near the top.
There is no objective measure where the median American is better off than the median European.
I’m saying this as a born and bread American citizen who is fortunate enough to be on the better side of the economic divide.
What a disappointing comment on HN. Did you check who published it, what the methodology used was, before commenting?
Of course not. Easier to be snarkier than to research and understand.
For the record: The World Happiness Report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
That's an argument from authority, essentially saying that it is not possible for such a group to have released nonsense data. One can believe the data was gathered according to strict principles but still believe that the data gathered is nonsense due to errors in self-reporting.
I might report higher happiness right after lunch than right before lunch. I might be happier right after getting a kind text from a friend than before. Or after having sex. Or after watching a funny video. Or after petting my cat. Need I go on?
Any one of those and more could be the singular reason for a 7 instead of a 3 in a given report. There are too many confounding factors to draw any meaningful conclusions from the reports.
It always has been. Obviously no offense to any country, but Palestine and Ukraine which are quite literally in the middle of conflicts are “happier” than places like India tells you that happiness is a vague concept and the methodology to measure it is quite dubious.
Readit News
https://data.worldhappiness.report/chart
One thing I noticed, comparing the US to the top ranked (mostly Nordic) countries: There was no clear pattern in "positive emotions" scores. Indeed, the US might be above average. But the US was far above the Nordic countries in "negative emotion" scores. So perhaps it is more accurate to conclude the US is "more unhappy" vs. "less happy".
Also the variance in the US was much higher - so it's more a subset of the population dragging things down.
This is consistent with a story that the major factor in the rankings is that the support and security of Nordic states reduce downward variance in unhappiness (e.g. for the poor, & sick).
Of course there could be many other explanations too (e.g. the US having a competitive culture where people who don't succeed above average are less satisfied).
(Too bad no one will ever read this comment, due to HNs recency bias).
* Rankings: https://data.worldhappiness.report/table
* Data for the US specifically: https://data.worldhappiness.report/country/USA
The main thing I found interesting was the big jump in "Benevolence" for 2020-2021, presumably related to the pandemic.
That's not to say it's not a good feeling when someone finds utility in something I've done, but a nice walk also gives me the same good feeling.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg1--c2r8HE
General overview:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
And in the midst of that is down to one final bank which if it collapsed is worth something like 20x the gdp of the nation in holdings.
So maybe the Swiss are waking up to how much more delicate their situation may be.
But tribal loyalty is a powerful force, so as soon as the questions or questioner appears partisan in any way, people form ranks for “their side” and you’d be hard pressed to get an honest response, least of all one that reflects badly on their team at the helm.
Dead Comment
With that caveat, the conclusion there is that "The liberal-conservative happiness gap persists across all demographics".
Meaning there is no demographic category in which liberals are happier than conservatives — "conservative gays and lesbians report higher happiness than heterosexual liberals".
Lol.
No? The true hallmarks of totalitarianism are a lack of political competition (usually due to repression) and the state controlling “all aspects of society, including the family, religion, education, business, private property, and social relationships” [1].
Ancient Athens was a famously political society. It was not totalitarian.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
Suicide rates aren't everything, but they are certainly telling a very different story. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
Anecdotally, the most depressed times in my life were when circumstances were objectively fine and I still couldn't manage to feel any less than terrible. Like, "This is as good as it's ever going to get???" Ironically having actual problems gave me both something to attribute the bad feelings to, and hope that I would feel better once I resolved the problems.
Dead Comment
Dory, obviously.
Deleted Comment
Happiness can be studied in a lot of ways, and none of them is complete or accurate. Momentary happiness is possible in a miserable life and vice versa.
I suspect this survey does tell us something over time, if methodology is stable.
There is no objective measure where the median American is better off than the median European.
I’m saying this as a born and bread American citizen who is fortunate enough to be on the better side of the economic divide.
Deleted Comment
Of course not. Easier to be snarkier than to research and understand.
For the record: The World Happiness Report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
https://www.worldhappiness.report/
I might report higher happiness right after lunch than right before lunch. I might be happier right after getting a kind text from a friend than before. Or after having sex. Or after watching a funny video. Or after petting my cat. Need I go on?
Any one of those and more could be the singular reason for a 7 instead of a 3 in a given report. There are too many confounding factors to draw any meaningful conclusions from the reports.
I did, in fact. Did you?
Dead Comment
Dead Comment
Dead Comment