> how do you control for a "cultural bias to complain" You can't. It's fairly likely these surveys are measuring things like that instead of actual happiness.

> how do you control for a "cultural bias to complain" You can't. It's fairly likely these surveys are measuring things like that instead of actual happiness. There's also likely variance in the rate at which people lie on polls: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-29206289 https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-29206289