The “Happiest” People on Earth

According to the World Happiness Report, Danes are the happiest people on Earth. During my time in Denmark, this statistic was touted commonly; I found the topic interesting because it prods at our fundamental beliefs and core values. It also takes after the state of the economy, the government, and how the country’s structure coalesces. Indeed, I met people who were overtly happy and extremely generous. Staying with my friend Derek and his host family, I was welcomed with open arms and genuine hospitality. But walking the streets, riding the buses, and interacting with locals, I didn’t notice people were significantly happier.

 

To pass time on the train I decided to investigate the World Happiness Report (WHR) for myself, to study how the data was collected, and how valid its claims really are. I began, intending to rip it apart and find as many flaws and errors as possible. I expected an easy read that would trigger a rant about how externalities (for example: social programs, income level, and material wealth) don’t produce happiness. However, after the first few pages I began finding valuable insights. The research does have major issues such as the limited number of responses (~1,100) and the challenges of ascribing concrete metrics to “happiness”. Like any anthropological study, there are reasons to question the results- most of which are admitted in the report. Ultimately, the discussion is more complex than simply denouncing the research effort altogether.

 

How was the research conducted?

 

I won’t bore you with the details- if you are interested I suggest looking at the report directly: World Happiness Report

 

Basically, there were two sets of data. The first, between 2005-11 and the second, from 2012-15. Using a scale of 1-10 (the Cantril Ladder) respondents from 156 countries were asked to rate their life satisfaction. Combining data from different regions and time frames provides two alternative analyses.

 

What stood out to me?

 

First, the report establishes the general result that income has more impact on life evaluations than emotions. This makes logical sense; when asked to evaluate your life objectively, income is inescapable. However, on an emotional level, income isn’t the only dog in town.

 

Secondly, the evidence suggests that “experienced well-being and a sense of life purpose are both important influences on life evaluations, above and beyond the critical role of life circumstances.” This implication is powerful because it goes to show that bad life circumstances can be overridden by a sense of purpose. See the evidence, and especially the role of positive emotions, in the figure 2.1 below.

 

 

 

Third, the “weekend effect (the phenomenon where the day of the week impacts the results) disappears for those employed in a high trust workplace, who regard their superior more as a partner than a boss, and maintain their social life during weekdays.” Big shout out to the managers (and future managers) out there: giving subordinates a sense of partnership and stake in business outcomes may support employees’ job satisfaction and overall happiness.

 

“Illustrative not conclusive” (a better way to say, “Fundamentally flawed”)

 

There are no metrics to evaluate happiness. Instead, the report chooses to focus on “subjective well-being.” According to the report, the 6 factors which account for about 74% of the correlation data are: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

 

“Much more research is needed to fully understand the interplay of factors that determine the inequality of well-being, but there is every hope that simply changing the focus from income inequality to well-being inequality will speed the arrival of a time when the distribution of well-being can be improved, for the benefit of current and future generations in all countries.”

 

The final statement reads:

This conclusion drives home a great point which has been missed in years past. Rather than focusing on wealth and material resource distribution, governments and organizations should focus their efforts on the immaterial factors which sustain a quality social fabric. To support this assertion, the report looked at the change in life evaluations between 2005-07 and 2011-13. What they found was that although many of the countries which experienced economic declines did see their well-being degrade, economic factors were not the only influencer. In Greece, specifically, the report suggests a weak social fabric and ongoing political issues may have accounted for some of the decline.

 

My biggest complaint about perpetuating this sort of research is that most people just catch the headline. Articles written on the topic tend to focus on one attention grabbing hook in order to generate interest; for example, the top 5 “happiest” countries or the single most important factor influencing life satisfaction. While accurate, it’s important to understand the whole compilation of research.

 

The Distributions based on region: