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Of course the outcomes of this kind of research are largely dependent on way it is designed. There is a similar study that finds Latin American countries to be

• TeeWEE 10y ago
  Exactly what I thought, in some cultures asking somebody if they are happy on a 10 scale ladder, will result in high values because the culture's norm is to be positive. While in some other countries the social norm is to be pessimistic. But in the end those pessimistic countries wouldn't be a good place to be happy anyways :p
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    No, it's not about pessimism optimism. I some cultures (often, on the same country), people rate very high even if they have a moderately negative opinion because anything but the very highest available ratings is seen as saying "unacceptably bad", while in other cultures they tend to rate low even with a moderately positive opinion because high ratings are seen as, well, high praise. It's not pessimism vs. optimism, it's that numeric ratings have no intrinsic, universal mapping to feelings, and cultures tend to map them differently.
• jernfrost 10y ago
  As someone living in Norway who has been quite interested in the subject and read a lot about it. My understanding is that nordic countries tend to come at the top, not because people are jumping around with joy in the streets. More likely to find that in South America or Africa. Nordic happiness is a mild happiness. It is really about having few people very dissatisfied with life rather than having super happy people. There is little of the social conflict, poverty, health problems etc which plague many other countries. That is what these things measure. Latin American countries would typically get pulled down because there is a signifiant portion of people who don't have very nice lives. This is what I've heard from foreigners living in northern Europe. They notice that there are very few people you observe who look genuinely dissatisfied with their life.
  • aedron 10y ago
    Very true. I bet Scandinavia ranks highest in 'average happiness', but much lower in 'peak happiness', if that makes sense. There is a kind of oppressive atmosphere here where you are expected to subdue yourself, like it is a sin to stick out in a positive way (how dare you make the rest of us feel worse off with your success).
    • jamesblonde 10y ago
      That oppresive cultural phenomenom you refer to is called 'modesty' (Jantelag in Sweden - Jante's law). I also experience it in rural ireland - 'dont get too big for your boots', 'dont let it go to his/her head' (although rank selfishness is still socially acceptable in catholic rural ireland as long as you make up for it with by being a 'character'). Selfishness doesn't fly in Sweden. Modesty plays an important role in social cohesion, as studies show that relative wealth, not absolute wealth is important in how people feel about themselves.
      • digi_owl 10y ago
        > (Jantelag in Sweden - Jante's law) Please don't. That was the creation of one author that was a bit of a grump to put it mildly. Also, he formulated that in the 1930s.
    • dguaraglia 10y ago
      I concur with jamesblonde. American culture is very particular in that it encourages bragging and self-aggrandizing as a good character trait. It takes a while to get used to that when moving to the US. As a simple example a very good friend of mine had issues with interviewing for jobs because she'd understate her achievements. She'd be asked "so what's your experience with Photoshop and Illustrator" and she'd say "well, I've used them a lot and I'm comfortable with them." An American with half her experience would confidently say "I'm an expert." It took a lot of cajoling to get her to be less modest - at least while interviewing.
      • ConceptJunkie 10y ago
• M_Grey 10y ago
  IIRC there was a similar study about six or seven years ago that found Nigerians were the most contented. Such rigor!
  • cies 10y ago
    "Glad I speak to you! I'm doing super, and in fact I'm delighted to let you know that I have just inherited 500.000 USD from my grandfather. Now if you could help me transfer this fortune out of the country, I can share a good part of it with you."