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1) Happiness is not as subjective as people think. Research suggest that what people state about their own happiness correlates very well with how friends and c
by jernfrost 10y ago
1) Happiness is not as subjective as people think. Research suggest that what people state about their own happiness correlates very well with how friends and colleagues would describe a person as.
2) Having lived abroad extensively and traveled around many places keenly trying to observe these things I'd say Norwegian happiness is real. But we have a tendency in Norway to take every good thing for granted and complain a lot. E.g. I noticed when in North American, despite equal wealth, there is a lot more hardship and stress. You can even tell just by looking at people. People are stressed out about over demanding jobs, risk of losing health care, crime, dysfunctional politics etc.
We Norwegians have among the best work-life balances of anywhere. Works doesn't stress people out as much as many other places. And the government provided welfare services means we worry a lot less about stuff than people in the rest of the world.
3) Another thing I notice is that people trust each other to a high level in Norway. In many other parts of the world suspicion and trust grinds on people. It can imagine it is exaushting dealing with a constant paranoia where other people, the government, the police etc can never be trusted.
- RobertoG 10y agoIt seems to me that your points 2 and 3 are one and the same.
- setrofim_ 10y ago> 1) Happiness is not as subjective as people think. Research suggest that what people state about their own happiness correlates very well with how friends and colleagues would describe a person as. This just means that how happy a person feels correlates well with how happy others perceive them to be. This says nothing about whether their subjective feelings reflect objective reality. Research actually seems to suggest that happiness is very subjective, and may in fact have a strong genetic component[0]. I.e. whether a particular person is happy is dictated less by their circumstances and more by their outlook/personality/genetics. Of course, one's circumstances also play a role (e.g. a person will be less happy immediately after the death of a loved one), but subjective factors seem to win out overall. [0] e.g. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201302/can-happiness-be-genetic https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201302/...
- thatcat 10y ago>happiness is very subjective, and may infact have a strong genetic component. I agree that happiness is subjective and personality trait expression may very well have a genetic component, but I wouldn't dismiss societal and environmental factors entirely. For example, inequality and air pollution are also associated with unhappiness. https://news.virginia.edu/content/income-inequality-increases-unhappiness-study-shows https://news.virginia.edu/content/income-inequality-increase... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130118125955.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130118125955.h...
- scarface74 10y agoThere have been plenty of studies showing that when you have a homogenous society, people are more likely to care about the common good. When you have an "us" and "them" society, people are a lot more concerned that "they" are getting over and not working as hard.
- passivepinetree 10y agoDo you have a source for any of these assertions (especially number 1) or are they all anecdotal?
- edblarney 10y agoYou know when a startup has money, everything is happy. When they don't, it's terrible. Norway has tons of extra Oil money. The sense of security that comes from that should not be ignored. Even aside from the emotion - when there's 'extra cash' to pay for all the little stuff, it just makes life easier all around. I don't think we can ignore the big Oil elephant in the room.