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Americans Are Among the Most Stressed People in the World, Poll Finds

107 points by enraged_camel 8y ago

ridgewell 8y ago
I wonder if the root cause for all of this is poor instruction on stress management and anger management. I am starting to wonder if many of these issues are actually culturally driven, rather than biologically driven. American urban and industrial culture as-a-whole is one that prizes productivity, grinding, and individual work, rather than looser workdays, efficiency and teamwork. I am aware there are exceptions.
- enraged_camel 8y ago
  >>I wonder if the root cause for all of this is poor instruction on stress management and anger management. Do citizens of countries with low stress and anger levels receive such instructions? Because if not, lack of such instructions is unlikely to be the "root cause" of the observed phenomenon.
  - ridgewell 8y ago
    Instruction on stress management and anger management is driven by parenting and school environments, not by state-mandated education and mandatory stress management workshops. If you see your parents constantly on the verge of bankruptcy and lay-offs, struggling to pay off medical bills and resorting to shouting as a stress relief mechanism, then odds are, you'll grow up thinking this is the norm.
- dillonmckay 8y ago
  Cultural values and government policy are symbiotic.
- Starknaked 8y ago
  I think it's culturally and socially driven. As an outsider looking in I have discussed American capitalism with others and its more ruthless nature compared to the more moderate varieties of Europe. The US GDP (ppp) per capita is very high for the size of it's population (and not being a tax haven or major oil exporter). Even compared to a wealthy powerhouse like Germany the US has a gdp per capita $10k higher. I don't believe that is due to the Us being a more efficient economy. It's because US employees and citizens aren't afforded the same services, rights, and level of care that people in countries like Germany do get that alleviates the stresses of daily life.
malvosenior 8y ago
"When Gallup investigated the responses more closely, it found that being under 50, earning a low income and having a dim view of President Trump’s job performance were correlated with negative experiences among adults in the United States." I'm sure the media plays a huge part in this. Realistically speaking, American's lives are practically no different than before Trump was elected, yet almost all major media outlets produce Trump-centric outrage bait every day. If people actually looked at their own personal experiences vs what the media tells them to think about, they would probably be a lot less stressed out (about that issue in particular). The New York Times is ironically one of the top purveyors of Trump flavored stress.
- ClutchBand 8y ago
  Blaming a temporary administration for the problem gives them a new enemy every cycle, keeping you distracted from the larger issues and problems.
  - spaceheretostay 8y ago
    The President thinks that using "machine guns at the border" would be a "very effective" thing to do to accomplish his goals. He is beginning a genocide. He also is angered that "not enough" children were separated from their parents at the border, intent on being as cruel as possible. This is not a distraction, this is a very real problem. This is not made up by the media. The US, led by Trump, is accelerating towards a full genocide. It's not some distraction, it IS the "larger issue".
    - boubiyeah 8y ago
      Trump is 1% of the U.S.A problems. He's more or less just a dumb symptom.
  - codingdave 8y ago
    The administration may be temporary, but they have control of our military, our weapons, and our international policy. They have influence over slow-moving change in the country, and direct impact on faster changes via executive orders. Yes, there are are deep systemic issues that go beyond the temporary leadership, and yes, those are important. But that doesn't mean the leadership should not be a concern of ours.
nostromo 8y ago
> The findings were not all bleak for the United States. Despite having widespread negative experiences, Americans also generally reported more positive experiences, on average, than the rest of the world did. It'd be interesting to know how they came to the decision to focus on the negative emotions in the article.
- kodablah 8y ago
  One could guess because "among the most" is more newsworthy than "above average". But a more cynical guess is self-fulfilling, i.e. media reporting encourages negativity/stress which begets the results and the focus choice.
- gdulli 8y ago
  According to the third paragraph the trend in negative experiences is what specifically stands out, not the degree.
- tomschlick 8y ago
  Negative things always get the clicks. As the old saying goes: "If it bleeds, it leads".
- pard68 8y ago
  Clicks I imagine.
- fulafel 8y ago
  Above average vs most in the eorld are not same levels of outliers.
kvhdude 8y ago
are the countries being bombed in various wars excluded? I always wonder about their stress levels and coping techniques. Here high school stress is leading to depression epidemic.
- enraged_camel 8y ago
  It's probably not feasible to collect data from countries that are being bombed. :)
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  I remember reading that Londoners got rather blasé about the bombing during the blitz, by the end many didn't even bother going to the shelters. It seems seeing houses across the road turned to ruble but not being affected yourself blunts the anguish.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    You get used to it. My mom says that sitting in a bunker during a long WW2 bombing (in Germany) is a life changing experience. It damages a lot of people permanently. The question is how they express that damage.
- BeetleB 8y ago
  The better (safer, healthier, whatever) a society gets, the greater the impact of any problem (inequity, health, etc) on the people, and the more sensitive they become. It's not at all a given that people in countries that are chronically worse off have more negativity. Personal example: Lived in a country where corporal punishment of 2 years old is the norm. I didn't like it, but seeing it happen didn't negatively affect me much. Then lived in a country where it was definitely not the norm, and highly discouraged. A decade later, seeing someone slap a 2 year old is definitely invokes a strong negative reaction from me. I'm pretty sure that were I to move back to the first country, within a year it wouldn't. Example on a wider scale: The level of outrage, fear, and paranoia when someone in the US gets measles. Go live in a country where it's more common, and getting measles is viewed as merely an annoyance. That it is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death isn't enough to justify the extremes of vitriol I see in the US. At the end of the day, far too many things in the US cause more deaths. We don't call fines and imprisonment for parents who allow their kids to become obese (well, most of us don't). From some people's perspective, this is also at play with the concept of safe spaces in colleges, perceived microaggressions[0], etc. The US has generally gotten more polite in the last few decades, so there is less tolerance for anything that is not perceived as being polite. And if someone is less polite, it has to be explained by a narrative. The concept that people are simply rude is eroding. Instead, they must be racists, misogynists, homophobes, nationalist, etc. Science and technology do wonders for physical health and physical quality of life. Unfortunately, countries like the US focus a lot more on those without focusing on the required mental perspectives that need to go along with it. You're simply not going to improve people's perceptions of how well they are doing without addressing psychological factors. Not to get too philosophical, but most of a person's sense of suffering is generated by the narrative the person is telling him/herself. In a different country, when someone catches measles, it's "Pity." Or even "Thank goodness he'll get it out of his system and be immune" (which was the mentality when I was growing up). Over here, it's "X should go to jail for refusing to vaccinate the kid!" That mentality will no doubt reduce the amount of measles in a given society, but it is not going to improve the society's mental well being. Other strategies are needed. [0] I say perceived, because it is often invoked for behavior that has little to do with what you see on the Wiki page for microaggressions - in my work place we've been taught that appearing distracted while someone is talking to you is a microaggression, for example.
spaceheretostay 8y ago
> When Gallup investigated the responses more closely, it found that being under 50, earning a low income and having a dim view of President Trump’s job performance were correlated with negative experiences among adults in the United States. > But there still isn’t enough data to say for sure whether any of those factors were behind the feelings of stress, worry and anger. > “We are seeing patterns that would point to a political explanation, or a polarization explanation, with the U.S. data, but can we say that definitively? No,” Ms. Ray said. The United States is under attack from Russia. We are involved in a propaganda war, a real physical war attacking our election infrastructure, and the President encourages it to continue while cutting/removing our ability to secure our elections and defend our democracy. He states that he is intent on not leaving office peacefully in the future and that he likes China's one-party for life. I get that this may not be conclusively proven to increase stress on Americans, but I would be _shocked_ if it were not a major contributing factor. Every single person I've spoken to IRL about the Trump-related-stress-and-depression concept eagerly agrees that this is weighing heavily on people in a very constant, deep and personal way. Obviously, personal finances, job security, and other close things are likely equally or more important. But Trump has also eliminated many people's feelings of financial security or job security, as he has personally chosen to hold paychecks from a million people on a racist vendetta, directly removing those people's personal income while still demanding they work. Surely it can be said that at least for some large portion of Americans, it is true that Trump's policies and behavior on the job _Are_ hurting us.
- tomschlick 8y ago
  > He states that he is intent on not leaving office peacefully in the future Source? > Every single person I've spoken to IRL about the Trump-related-stress-and-depression concept eagerly agrees that this is weighing heavily on people in a very constant, deep and personal way. Is it possible that that's the goal of the media right now? To make things seem so bad that they can swing political opinion? I mean look at this article. They focus on the negative but fail to mention in the headline that we also have the most positive experiences. That's framing and is very dangerous when done at scale.
  - 8y ago
tomschlick 8y ago
>The findings were not all bleak for the United States. Despite having widespread negative experiences, Americans also generally reported more positive experiences, on average, than the rest of the world did. So we have both. But that isn't in the headline because it wouldn't be clickbaity enough. I honestly wonder how much of American's stress over the past few years is because of this crap. We are constantly told the sky is falling by new articles only to have it not be the truth.
- andbberger 8y ago
  The sky is definitely falling. Maybe you should talk to more poor people
  - tomschlick 8y ago
    Maybe you should provide concrete examples instead of suggesting I talk to more poor people.
    - andbberger 8y ago
      hmm not sure the burden is on me here buddy, you opened with the classic 'middlebrow dismissal'. The people are: - drowning in debt - dying of preventable diseases because they cannot afford healthcare - working for a fraction of the true value of their labour, a fraction that gets smaller every year - losing more workers rights every year. The 'gig' economy was a master stroke of misdirection that destroyed basic protections like minimum wage and an 8 hour day that our predecessors fought so hard for - not getting nearly enough sleep ... shall I go on? But yeah, I'm sure none of that really bothers them and what they're ACTUALLY concerned about is that we can't make up our mind whether the sky is falling or not. Right.
      - dang 8y ago
        Can you please not post in the flamewar style to HN? It only makes this place worse, which helps no one. Giving up on respectful persuasion in order to bash enemies is a bad trade. True, you'll probably never persuade the commenter you're arguing with, but that's not what matters. What matters is the audience reading the thread. If you go into snark and aggression, the effect is to discredit your good points with the larger audience, weakening the influence of the truth you're trying to impart. That's one reason why the site guidelines ask you not to do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
maxxxxx 8y ago
From casual observation (living here since 2000) I believe that being stressed and "busy" is a badge of honor in the US. For example during Christmas time everybody complains about being stressed with it. I don't remember that from living in Germany. Christmas was downtime not a source of stress. For a while it was also popular to be "outraged" about stuff but that seems to have calmed down quite a bit.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  The popularity of being stressed by work/busyness is just Puritan work ethic continuing into the 21st century. When work is seen as inherently moral by a society, then being busy makes you a more worthwhile member of that society. It might’ve been a good idea back when we were subsistence farmers, but it doesn’t seem to be super effective nowadays. Outrage culture, which I don’t think has gone away, appears to be new.
  - oh_sigh 8y ago
    The puritans were a tiny group of people who lived in basically one corner of one state. I know it is thrown around a lot(e.g. "Why is America so conservative on sex? Puritans"), but I'm fairly sure the 98+% of non-puritans who emigrated to the US had a bigger impact on our culture than the puritans.
    - war1025 8y ago
      I believe the more general term is "Protestant Work Ethic", which encompasses a much larger swath of people.
    - village-idiot 8y ago
      That’s like saying “most of the people in South America weren’t from Spain, why should 16th century Spanish culture have an impact on South America?” It kind of makes sense until you start counting how many people speak Spanish! The puritans are part of the founding myth of America. Ask any school child who founded the colonies and they’ll tell you the pilgrims. That kind of impact lingers. Nobody ever mentions Dutch settlers in what’s now New York or the Spanish in what’s now Florida. That doesn’t mean we’re literally puritans (which wasn’t my claim anyways), but that does mean that the echoes of their culture still have an impact on us today. And, as others have kindly pointed out, “Protestant work ethic” is considered a valid term for the same historical/social trends by academics.
Reedx 8y ago
I find the less news and social media I consume, the less stressed I am.
- ASalazarMX 8y ago
  It's a strange balance between our desire to get informed and the need of the media to monetize that desire.
anotherthro313 8y ago
Duh. All you have to do is fly from New York to Copenhagen and back to understand how angry and stressed we are, as well as what kind of life would be possible if our nation put caring about everybody's quality of life above power and greed.
- crowdpleaser 8y ago
  Folks in Copenhagen don't care about everyone's quality of life, they seem to care about the quality of life for their fellow citizens. I don't see the Danish tripping over themselves to help the less fortunate outside of Denmark, but many Americans help out illegals who invade America. I think America could do this but it would require doing something about illegals and like Denmark, getting rid of birthright citizenship and moving towards ethnic homogeneity. America is too diverse for people to really care about everyone else.
  - PhasmaFelis 8y ago
    Did you just blame immigrants for Americans being stressed out?
    - crowdpleaser 8y ago
      Illegals aren't doing anything to help American stress levels (unless you're wealthy enough to employ illegals and enjoy the cost savings over Americans). When I try to find parking in a sanctuary city or sit in traffic in a sanctuary city, I wonder how many of those problems would go away if we cleaned house of illegals. If you're an American and traffic, crime, and low wages have you stressed, getting rid of illegals is sure to help. I don't see what's hard to comprehend - scabs stress out unions, illegals stress out Americans
      - z2 8y ago
        That wasn't the entirety of your message. Could you please explain what you meant by needing ethnic homogenization? If Americans are so busy helping out illegals, then doesn't that invalidate the premise that America is too diverse for people to care for each other?
akeck 8y ago
A common cause of stress for people I know is getting and paying for healthcare.
throwayEngineer 8y ago
I've noticed many of my peers claim to be Busy. I know it's impossible to be productive all day... But I'm curious if these are Americans who claim Stress. They might be stressed and busy, but these are also my peers with awful time management and make bad Decisions. I believe the stress is self imposed and optional.
Arubis 8y ago
At the risk of being flippant: they needed a poll for this? Reader, reflect on the society in which you live, and ask yourself: if something really crappy happened to your family out of the blue, would someone catch you when you fall?
- stagger87 8y ago
  So you're suggesting rather than sourcing the poll for the article they should source their feelings?
codegeek 8y ago
I have a theory for this. I am a capitalist but I do believe that America has a real wage growth problem for majority of Americans especially on the lower end of income spectrum [0]. Things have changed where now even though people make more money monetarily, the actual purchasing power is much lower. So now, most American families have both spouses working and of course single income households are only by force and not by choice for most middle class/poor Americans. Not to mention the stress of things like healthcare costs, it really adds up to the stress that I would argue most other developed nations don't have. So I really think that we need a Capitalistic society with social programs that provide the basic needs to EVERY american. For basic needs, we should not compete with each other. We should only compete for innovation and creativity. I want every American to be able to eat, sleep in a decent place and not worry about healthcare. If that can be taken care of, let them excel if they can in whatever they want to excel at. [0] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us...
dfxm12 8y ago
I wonder where these negative experiences are coming from. What are people stressed about? Is it money? Certainly, but would that explain the recent rise? People have been poor in the US for a while. Maybe it comes from the news, both real and fake. Only in America could you find a way to make a healthy buck and still keep your attitude on self destruct. -MF DOOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQnjNOWd1sI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQnjNOWd1sI
jfk13 8y ago
I wonder how much the stress level would change if Americans had a tax-funded universal healthcare system?
- EliRivers 8y ago
  I certainly know people who stay in jobs they hate because they fear going without medical cover for self and family; in contrast, over six jobs in 18 years, I've only once lined up a job before quitting and the idea of having to keep a job for the medical insurance sounds like bondage to me (yes, I know, it's not bondage, it's all just relative - that's what it sounds like to me). Being able to simply quit (and sometimes just knowing it's a genuine option) when I get sick of work has, I suspect, contributed to my mental health. I've seen people keep jobs they hate because they need to keep providing for their family. In the worst cases, they come to resent those very same loved ones for what they have to go through on a daily basis. It's not healthy for anyone involved.
istorical 8y ago
Simultaneously lacking in the pro-relaxation/mental health benefits of both the developing world (importance of family and extended family, close-knit community structures) and the developed world (social welfare, healthcare safety net - people don't go uninsured and risk bankruptcy or avoid doctors due to potential bills in other developed countries). The USA is a great place to try to become wealthy but a terrible place to be poor.
war1025 8y ago
I think the movie / book "Fight Club" does a good job of pointing out how ridiculous American culture can be. Up until they go off the rails and start bombing stuff, it's a really nice critique on society. For example: "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. " "We're consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra." America has a problem with raising people to have realistic expectations. Whatever your parents' station in life, that's probably right about where you'll end up. You can't be "anything" you want. People grind themselves into the ground trying to be things they aren't.
- chrisco255 8y ago
  That movie was made in the 90s, right? I think that culture has shifted some since then and people are less obsessed with brand names. But maybe that obsession has been replaced with looking good on social media?
  - war1025 8y ago
    People are obsessed with social status of various forms. How that is expressed may have changed, but I don't think the underlying motivation has.
    - chrisco255 8y ago
      Well I think that's deeply rooted in human psyche.
  - ekovarski 8y ago
    Are people really less obsessed with brand names? I think it's just not proper these days to point out the brands they wear but I think people still obsess about it.
djakjxnanjak 8y ago
I’m American, and I frequently notice that most people are always talking about how much everything sucks. If somebody sees a movie, there is a 50/50 chance they will be talking about how they didn’t like it because they thought the writing was awkward in one scene. When talking about a car they will complain about how the dashboard feels. When talking about their relationships with other people they will complain about how this person is too familiar and that person is too distant. It’s as though everyone is employed as the Roger Ebert of their lives and everything they come into contact with. This approach to life seems bound to make anyone stressed even if they live in complete prosperity. Are people like this everywhere or is this more of an American thing?
- newsoul2019 8y ago
  I noticed this in myself when I started writing a lot of Yelp reviews. Eventually I wrote several hundred, but ended up deleting the account.
- arethuza 8y ago
  An example regarding movies: there seemed to be an outrage around 'First Man' that it wasn't patriotic enough - but the movie was about one of the most awesome things any country has done and about a man who was a hero to people across the world (including me). I'm not from the US and the movie seemed to be about one of the best things the US has ever done and still people complained about it!
  - bazooka_penguin 8y ago
    Because they cut the US flag planting scene and then when responding to the hubbub over it the staff and Armstrong's sons said it was more of a moment for humanity as a whole. You dont see why some Americans would be angry? I mean the arms race era wasnt even that long ago and the project was literally an American (and some canadian) effort borne out of nationalism in the first place.
    - arethuza 8y ago
      Out of interest, have you actually seen the movie?
ummonk 8y ago
I wonder how it compares to even more workaholic countries like Japan or South Korea.
i_don_t_know 8y ago
When I was living in the US, the thing I hated the most and that stressed me out the most was that I had to drive everywhere. You can't walk places. Well, you can but it's not fun. And no decent public transport. No bike lanes (well a few but you still had to ride on roads without any). I have never owned a car in Germany. I can walk to a supermarket or a bakery. I find it so much more pleasant than having to drive everywhere.
- andrewla 8y ago
  Your scope might be too broad; the US is a large place. Germany is not so small either. In many cities in the US cars are not a necessity and public transit is adequate.
  - stuxnet79 8y ago
    Apart from the big transit-friendly metro areas like New York and Chicago, where else will you not be penalized for being carless? Even in Chicago, I often feel like the city is giving me a middle finger for not owning a car ... Urban planning and zoning regulations in the US as a whole favor cars over pedestrians.
jandrewrogers 8y ago
It is a quirk of American culture. In many parts of the world, society expects people to be unremarkably average in some sense, and there isn't much room for unfettered ambition. American culture, by contrast, has an expectation that everyone can be exceptional and should strive for that, even though the reality is that most people have little capacity to be exceptional in any meaningful sense. I think attempting to live up to this standard of American culture is the root cause of a lot of uniquely American stress. You even see this difference in the startup cultures between the US and Europe. The flip side is that in some sense I think Americans feel like they achieve self-actualization more often. I don't think you can change this part of American culture, it is deeply embedded part of the American identity, and it does come with real benefits as a society in addition to the obvious downsides. Individuals can choose to opt out but there is always pressure to spurn that option.
RickJWagner 8y ago
Yes, of course. Americans currently have record low unemployment (especially for minorities), rising wages, a roaring stock market and fewer race riots than when the previous president was in office. So for some, it is not a stressful time.
andrewshatnyy 8y ago
I moved to San Francisco from Russia and lived there for over 10 years. Despite unstable life in Russia, with each year I was becoming increasingly anxious whilst living in the States. Although I was making a bank, it felt like I could loose it all any day if I’d became ill. I left that country less than a year ago. It’s magical how exponentially happy and calm I am after moving to Australia. US is a country for people in their 20s who are either rage at EDM festivals or those who busy building startups. There’s nothing to do if you poor or ill - you fucked!
bayareanative 8y ago
Opioid crisis, crushing debt, taking away healthcare from the poor to give to the rich (literally killing people for money) and bankruptcies from healthcare costs and lopsided divorce arrangements. Because of wealth capture of the political process and media, America is simultaneously a paradise for the rich and crushing austerity and wage-slavery for the poor. There's people living rough on the sides of highway embankments because they can't afford housing and killing themselves quickly with opioids because their futures seem so wretched and bleak. It's a third-world country, while many Americans think everything's "great."

107 points by enraged_camel 8y ago

I wonder if the root cause for all of this is poor instruction on stress management and anger management. I am starting to wonder if many of these issues are actually culturally driven, rather than biologically driven. American urban and industrial culture as-a-whole is one that prizes productivity, grinding, and individual work, rather than looser workdays, efficiency and teamwork. I am aware there are exceptions.

enraged_camel 8y ago
>>I wonder if the root cause for all of this is poor instruction on stress management and anger management. Do citizens of countries with low stress and anger levels receive such instructions? Because if not, lack of such instructions is unlikely to be the "root cause" of the observed phenomenon.
- ridgewell 8y ago
  Instruction on stress management and anger management is driven by parenting and school environments, not by state-mandated education and mandatory stress management workshops. If you see your parents constantly on the verge of bankruptcy and lay-offs, struggling to pay off medical bills and resorting to shouting as a stress relief mechanism, then odds are, you'll grow up thinking this is the norm.
dillonmckay 8y ago
Cultural values and government policy are symbiotic.
Starknaked 8y ago
I think it's culturally and socially driven. As an outsider looking in I have discussed American capitalism with others and its more ruthless nature compared to the more moderate varieties of Europe. The US GDP (ppp) per capita is very high for the size of it's population (and not being a tax haven or major oil exporter). Even compared to a wealthy powerhouse like Germany the US has a gdp per capita $10k higher. I don't believe that is due to the Us being a more efficient economy. It's because US employees and citizens aren't afforded the same services, rights, and level of care that people in countries like Germany do get that alleviates the stresses of daily life.

malvosenior 8y ago

"When Gallup investigated the responses more closely, it found that being under 50, earning a low income and having a dim view of President Trump’s job performance were correlated with negative experiences among adults in the United States." I'm sure the media plays a huge part in this. Realistically speaking, American's lives are practically no different than before Trump was elected, yet almost all major media outlets produce Trump-centric outrage bait every day. If people actually looked at their own personal experiences vs what the media tells them to think about, they would probably be a lot less stressed out (about that issue in particular). The New York Times is ironically one of the top purveyors of Trump flavored stress.

ClutchBand 8y ago
Blaming a temporary administration for the problem gives them a new enemy every cycle, keeping you distracted from the larger issues and problems.
- spaceheretostay 8y ago
  The President thinks that using "machine guns at the border" would be a "very effective" thing to do to accomplish his goals. He is beginning a genocide. He also is angered that "not enough" children were separated from their parents at the border, intent on being as cruel as possible. This is not a distraction, this is a very real problem. This is not made up by the media. The US, led by Trump, is accelerating towards a full genocide. It's not some distraction, it IS the "larger issue".
  - boubiyeah 8y ago
    Trump is 1% of the U.S.A problems. He's more or less just a dumb symptom.
- codingdave 8y ago
  The administration may be temporary, but they have control of our military, our weapons, and our international policy. They have influence over slow-moving change in the country, and direct impact on faster changes via executive orders. Yes, there are are deep systemic issues that go beyond the temporary leadership, and yes, those are important. But that doesn't mean the leadership should not be a concern of ours.

nostromo 8y ago

kodablah 8y ago
One could guess because "among the most" is more newsworthy than "above average". But a more cynical guess is self-fulfilling, i.e. media reporting encourages negativity/stress which begets the results and the focus choice.
gdulli 8y ago
According to the third paragraph the trend in negative experiences is what specifically stands out, not the degree.
tomschlick 8y ago
Negative things always get the clicks. As the old saying goes: "If it bleeds, it leads".
pard68 8y ago
Clicks I imagine.
fulafel 8y ago
Above average vs most in the eorld are not same levels of outliers.

kvhdude 8y ago

are the countries being bombed in various wars excluded? I always wonder about their stress levels and coping techniques. Here high school stress is leading to depression epidemic.

enraged_camel 8y ago
It's probably not feasible to collect data from countries that are being bombed. :)
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
I remember reading that Londoners got rather blasé about the bombing during the blitz, by the end many didn't even bother going to the shelters. It seems seeing houses across the road turned to ruble but not being affected yourself blunts the anguish.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  You get used to it. My mom says that sitting in a bunker during a long WW2 bombing (in Germany) is a life changing experience. It damages a lot of people permanently. The question is how they express that damage.
BeetleB 8y ago
The better (safer, healthier, whatever) a society gets, the greater the impact of any problem (inequity, health, etc) on the people, and the more sensitive they become. It's not at all a given that people in countries that are chronically worse off have more negativity. Personal example: Lived in a country where corporal punishment of 2 years old is the norm. I didn't like it, but seeing it happen didn't negatively affect me much. Then lived in a country where it was definitely not the norm, and highly discouraged. A decade later, seeing someone slap a 2 year old is definitely invokes a strong negative reaction from me. I'm pretty sure that were I to move back to the first country, within a year it wouldn't. Example on a wider scale: The level of outrage, fear, and paranoia when someone in the US gets measles. Go live in a country where it's more common, and getting measles is viewed as merely an annoyance. That it is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death isn't enough to justify the extremes of vitriol I see in the US. At the end of the day, far too many things in the US cause more deaths. We don't call fines and imprisonment for parents who allow their kids to become obese (well, most of us don't). From some people's perspective, this is also at play with the concept of safe spaces in colleges, perceived microaggressions[0], etc. The US has generally gotten more polite in the last few decades, so there is less tolerance for anything that is not perceived as being polite. And if someone is less polite, it has to be explained by a narrative. The concept that people are simply rude is eroding. Instead, they must be racists, misogynists, homophobes, nationalist, etc. Science and technology do wonders for physical health and physical quality of life. Unfortunately, countries like the US focus a lot more on those without focusing on the required mental perspectives that need to go along with it. You're simply not going to improve people's perceptions of how well they are doing without addressing psychological factors. Not to get too philosophical, but most of a person's sense of suffering is generated by the narrative the person is telling him/herself. In a different country, when someone catches measles, it's "Pity." Or even "Thank goodness he'll get it out of his system and be immune" (which was the mentality when I was growing up). Over here, it's "X should go to jail for refusing to vaccinate the kid!" That mentality will no doubt reduce the amount of measles in a given society, but it is not going to improve the society's mental well being. Other strategies are needed. [0] I say perceived, because it is often invoked for behavior that has little to do with what you see on the Wiki page for microaggressions - in my work place we've been taught that appearing distracted while someone is talking to you is a microaggression, for example.

spaceheretostay 8y ago

> When Gallup investigated the responses more closely, it found that being under 50, earning a low income and having a dim view of President Trump’s job performance were correlated with negative experiences among adults in the United States. > But there still isn’t enough data to say for sure whether any of those factors were behind the feelings of stress, worry and anger. > “We are seeing patterns that would point to a political explanation, or a polarization explanation, with the U.S. data, but can we say that definitively? No,” Ms. Ray said. The United States is under attack from Russia. We are involved in a propaganda war, a real physical war attacking our election infrastructure, and the President encourages it to continue while cutting/removing our ability to secure our elections and defend our democracy. He states that he is intent on not leaving office peacefully in the future and that he likes China's one-party for life. I get that this may not be conclusively proven to increase stress on Americans, but I would be _shocked_ if it were not a major contributing factor. Every single person I've spoken to IRL about the Trump-related-stress-and-depression concept eagerly agrees that this is weighing heavily on people in a very constant, deep and personal way. Obviously, personal finances, job security, and other close things are likely equally or more important. But Trump has also eliminated many people's feelings of financial security or job security, as he has personally chosen to hold paychecks from a million people on a racist vendetta, directly removing those people's personal income while still demanding they work. Surely it can be said that at least for some large portion of Americans, it is true that Trump's policies and behavior on the job _Are_ hurting us.

tomschlick 8y ago
> He states that he is intent on not leaving office peacefully in the future Source? > Every single person I've spoken to IRL about the Trump-related-stress-and-depression concept eagerly agrees that this is weighing heavily on people in a very constant, deep and personal way. Is it possible that that's the goal of the media right now? To make things seem so bad that they can swing political opinion? I mean look at this article. They focus on the negative but fail to mention in the headline that we also have the most positive experiences. That's framing and is very dangerous when done at scale.
- 8y ago

tomschlick 8y ago

>The findings were not all bleak for the United States. Despite having widespread negative experiences, Americans also generally reported more positive experiences, on average, than the rest of the world did. So we have both. But that isn't in the headline because it wouldn't be clickbaity enough. I honestly wonder how much of American's stress over the past few years is because of this crap. We are constantly told the sky is falling by new articles only to have it not be the truth.

andbberger 8y ago
The sky is definitely falling. Maybe you should talk to more poor people
- tomschlick 8y ago
  Maybe you should provide concrete examples instead of suggesting I talk to more poor people.
  - andbberger 8y ago
    hmm not sure the burden is on me here buddy, you opened with the classic 'middlebrow dismissal'. The people are: - drowning in debt - dying of preventable diseases because they cannot afford healthcare - working for a fraction of the true value of their labour, a fraction that gets smaller every year - losing more workers rights every year. The 'gig' economy was a master stroke of misdirection that destroyed basic protections like minimum wage and an 8 hour day that our predecessors fought so hard for - not getting nearly enough sleep ... shall I go on? But yeah, I'm sure none of that really bothers them and what they're ACTUALLY concerned about is that we can't make up our mind whether the sky is falling or not. Right.
    - dang 8y ago
      Can you please not post in the flamewar style to HN? It only makes this place worse, which helps no one. Giving up on respectful persuasion in order to bash enemies is a bad trade. True, you'll probably never persuade the commenter you're arguing with, but that's not what matters. What matters is the audience reading the thread. If you go into snark and aggression, the effect is to discredit your good points with the larger audience, weakening the influence of the truth you're trying to impart. That's one reason why the site guidelines ask you not to do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

maxxxxx 8y ago

From casual observation (living here since 2000) I believe that being stressed and "busy" is a badge of honor in the US. For example during Christmas time everybody complains about being stressed with it. I don't remember that from living in Germany. Christmas was downtime not a source of stress. For a while it was also popular to be "outraged" about stuff but that seems to have calmed down quite a bit.

village-idiot 8y ago
The popularity of being stressed by work/busyness is just Puritan work ethic continuing into the 21st century. When work is seen as inherently moral by a society, then being busy makes you a more worthwhile member of that society. It might’ve been a good idea back when we were subsistence farmers, but it doesn’t seem to be super effective nowadays. Outrage culture, which I don’t think has gone away, appears to be new.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  The puritans were a tiny group of people who lived in basically one corner of one state. I know it is thrown around a lot(e.g. "Why is America so conservative on sex? Puritans"), but I'm fairly sure the 98+% of non-puritans who emigrated to the US had a bigger impact on our culture than the puritans.
  - war1025 8y ago
    I believe the more general term is "Protestant Work Ethic", which encompasses a much larger swath of people.
  - village-idiot 8y ago
    That’s like saying “most of the people in South America weren’t from Spain, why should 16th century Spanish culture have an impact on South America?” It kind of makes sense until you start counting how many people speak Spanish! The puritans are part of the founding myth of America. Ask any school child who founded the colonies and they’ll tell you the pilgrims. That kind of impact lingers. Nobody ever mentions Dutch settlers in what’s now New York or the Spanish in what’s now Florida. That doesn’t mean we’re literally puritans (which wasn’t my claim anyways), but that does mean that the echoes of their culture still have an impact on us today. And, as others have kindly pointed out, “Protestant work ethic” is considered a valid term for the same historical/social trends by academics.

Reedx 8y ago

I find the less news and social media I consume, the less stressed I am.

ASalazarMX 8y ago
It's a strange balance between our desire to get informed and the need of the media to monetize that desire.

anotherthro313 8y ago

Duh. All you have to do is fly from New York to Copenhagen and back to understand how angry and stressed we are, as well as what kind of life would be possible if our nation put caring about everybody's quality of life above power and greed.

crowdpleaser 8y ago
Folks in Copenhagen don't care about everyone's quality of life, they seem to care about the quality of life for their fellow citizens. I don't see the Danish tripping over themselves to help the less fortunate outside of Denmark, but many Americans help out illegals who invade America. I think America could do this but it would require doing something about illegals and like Denmark, getting rid of birthright citizenship and moving towards ethnic homogeneity. America is too diverse for people to really care about everyone else.
- PhasmaFelis 8y ago
  Did you just blame immigrants for Americans being stressed out?
  - crowdpleaser 8y ago
    Illegals aren't doing anything to help American stress levels (unless you're wealthy enough to employ illegals and enjoy the cost savings over Americans). When I try to find parking in a sanctuary city or sit in traffic in a sanctuary city, I wonder how many of those problems would go away if we cleaned house of illegals. If you're an American and traffic, crime, and low wages have you stressed, getting rid of illegals is sure to help. I don't see what's hard to comprehend - scabs stress out unions, illegals stress out Americans
    - z2 8y ago
      That wasn't the entirety of your message. Could you please explain what you meant by needing ethnic homogenization? If Americans are so busy helping out illegals, then doesn't that invalidate the premise that America is too diverse for people to care for each other?

akeck 8y ago

A common cause of stress for people I know is getting and paying for healthcare.

throwayEngineer 8y ago

I've noticed many of my peers claim to be Busy. I know it's impossible to be productive all day... But I'm curious if these are Americans who claim Stress. They might be stressed and busy, but these are also my peers with awful time management and make bad Decisions. I believe the stress is self imposed and optional.

Arubis 8y ago

At the risk of being flippant: they needed a poll for this? Reader, reflect on the society in which you live, and ask yourself: if something really crappy happened to your family out of the blue, would someone catch you when you fall?

stagger87 8y ago
So you're suggesting rather than sourcing the poll for the article they should source their feelings?

codegeek 8y ago

I have a theory for this. I am a capitalist but I do believe that America has a real wage growth problem for majority of Americans especially on the lower end of income spectrum [0]. Things have changed where now even though people make more money monetarily, the actual purchasing power is much lower. So now, most American families have both spouses working and of course single income households are only by force and not by choice for most middle class/poor Americans. Not to mention the stress of things like healthcare costs, it really adds up to the stress that I would argue most other developed nations don't have. So I really think that we need a Capitalistic society with social programs that provide the basic needs to EVERY american. For basic needs, we should not compete with each other. We should only compete for innovation and creativity. I want every American to be able to eat, sleep in a decent place and not worry about healthcare. If that can be taken care of, let them excel if they can in whatever they want to excel at. [0] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us...

dfxm12 8y ago

I wonder where these negative experiences are coming from. What are people stressed about? Is it money? Certainly, but would that explain the recent rise? People have been poor in the US for a while. Maybe it comes from the news, both real and fake. Only in America could you find a way to make a healthy buck and still keep your attitude on self destruct. -MF DOOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQnjNOWd1sI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQnjNOWd1sI

jfk13 8y ago

I wonder how much the stress level would change if Americans had a tax-funded universal healthcare system?

EliRivers 8y ago
I certainly know people who stay in jobs they hate because they fear going without medical cover for self and family; in contrast, over six jobs in 18 years, I've only once lined up a job before quitting and the idea of having to keep a job for the medical insurance sounds like bondage to me (yes, I know, it's not bondage, it's all just relative - that's what it sounds like to me). Being able to simply quit (and sometimes just knowing it's a genuine option) when I get sick of work has, I suspect, contributed to my mental health. I've seen people keep jobs they hate because they need to keep providing for their family. In the worst cases, they come to resent those very same loved ones for what they have to go through on a daily basis. It's not healthy for anyone involved.

istorical 8y ago

Simultaneously lacking in the pro-relaxation/mental health benefits of both the developing world (importance of family and extended family, close-knit community structures) and the developed world (social welfare, healthcare safety net - people don't go uninsured and risk bankruptcy or avoid doctors due to potential bills in other developed countries). The USA is a great place to try to become wealthy but a terrible place to be poor.

war1025 8y ago

I think the movie / book "Fight Club" does a good job of pointing out how ridiculous American culture can be. Up until they go off the rails and start bombing stuff, it's a really nice critique on society. For example: "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. " "We're consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra." America has a problem with raising people to have realistic expectations. Whatever your parents' station in life, that's probably right about where you'll end up. You can't be "anything" you want. People grind themselves into the ground trying to be things they aren't.

chrisco255 8y ago
That movie was made in the 90s, right? I think that culture has shifted some since then and people are less obsessed with brand names. But maybe that obsession has been replaced with looking good on social media?
- war1025 8y ago
  People are obsessed with social status of various forms. How that is expressed may have changed, but I don't think the underlying motivation has.
  - chrisco255 8y ago
    Well I think that's deeply rooted in human psyche.
- ekovarski 8y ago
  Are people really less obsessed with brand names? I think it's just not proper these days to point out the brands they wear but I think people still obsess about it.

djakjxnanjak 8y ago

I’m American, and I frequently notice that most people are always talking about how much everything sucks. If somebody sees a movie, there is a 50/50 chance they will be talking about how they didn’t like it because they thought the writing was awkward in one scene. When talking about a car they will complain about how the dashboard feels. When talking about their relationships with other people they will complain about how this person is too familiar and that person is too distant. It’s as though everyone is employed as the Roger Ebert of their lives and everything they come into contact with. This approach to life seems bound to make anyone stressed even if they live in complete prosperity. Are people like this everywhere or is this more of an American thing?

newsoul2019 8y ago
I noticed this in myself when I started writing a lot of Yelp reviews. Eventually I wrote several hundred, but ended up deleting the account.
arethuza 8y ago
An example regarding movies: there seemed to be an outrage around 'First Man' that it wasn't patriotic enough - but the movie was about one of the most awesome things any country has done and about a man who was a hero to people across the world (including me). I'm not from the US and the movie seemed to be about one of the best things the US has ever done and still people complained about it!
- bazooka_penguin 8y ago
  Because they cut the US flag planting scene and then when responding to the hubbub over it the staff and Armstrong's sons said it was more of a moment for humanity as a whole. You dont see why some Americans would be angry? I mean the arms race era wasnt even that long ago and the project was literally an American (and some canadian) effort borne out of nationalism in the first place.
  - arethuza 8y ago
    Out of interest, have you actually seen the movie?

ummonk 8y ago

I wonder how it compares to even more workaholic countries like Japan or South Korea.

i_don_t_know 8y ago

When I was living in the US, the thing I hated the most and that stressed me out the most was that I had to drive everywhere. You can't walk places. Well, you can but it's not fun. And no decent public transport. No bike lanes (well a few but you still had to ride on roads without any). I have never owned a car in Germany. I can walk to a supermarket or a bakery. I find it so much more pleasant than having to drive everywhere.

andrewla 8y ago
Your scope might be too broad; the US is a large place. Germany is not so small either. In many cities in the US cars are not a necessity and public transit is adequate.
- stuxnet79 8y ago
  Apart from the big transit-friendly metro areas like New York and Chicago, where else will you not be penalized for being carless? Even in Chicago, I often feel like the city is giving me a middle finger for not owning a car ... Urban planning and zoning regulations in the US as a whole favor cars over pedestrians.

jandrewrogers 8y ago

It is a quirk of American culture. In many parts of the world, society expects people to be unremarkably average in some sense, and there isn't much room for unfettered ambition. American culture, by contrast, has an expectation that everyone can be exceptional and should strive for that, even though the reality is that most people have little capacity to be exceptional in any meaningful sense. I think attempting to live up to this standard of American culture is the root cause of a lot of uniquely American stress. You even see this difference in the startup cultures between the US and Europe. The flip side is that in some sense I think Americans feel like they achieve self-actualization more often. I don't think you can change this part of American culture, it is deeply embedded part of the American identity, and it does come with real benefits as a society in addition to the obvious downsides. Individuals can choose to opt out but there is always pressure to spurn that option.

RickJWagner 8y ago

Yes, of course. Americans currently have record low unemployment (especially for minorities), rising wages, a roaring stock market and fewer race riots than when the previous president was in office. So for some, it is not a stressful time.

andrewshatnyy 8y ago

I moved to San Francisco from Russia and lived there for over 10 years. Despite unstable life in Russia, with each year I was becoming increasingly anxious whilst living in the States. Although I was making a bank, it felt like I could loose it all any day if I’d became ill. I left that country less than a year ago. It’s magical how exponentially happy and calm I am after moving to Australia. US is a country for people in their 20s who are either rage at EDM festivals or those who busy building startups. There’s nothing to do if you poor or ill - you fucked!

bayareanative 8y ago

Opioid crisis, crushing debt, taking away healthcare from the poor to give to the rich (literally killing people for money) and bankruptcies from healthcare costs and lopsided divorce arrangements. Because of wealth capture of the political process and media, America is simultaneously a paradise for the rich and crushing austerity and wage-slavery for the poor. There's people living rough on the sides of highway embankments because they can't afford housing and killing themselves quickly with opioids because their futures seem so wretched and bleak. It's a third-world country, while many Americans think everything's "great."