sTuDiEs ShOw ThAt nOrDiC cOuNtRiEs ArE tHe hApPiEsT
(media.communities.win)
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Anything by self reporting is a lie, we have known this for decades, actual scientists have found that you have a 50% chance for an honest answer in surveys When there is no external pressure to give a specific answer.
Yeah it's funny. The idea is "it's anonymous and they have no reason to lie, so why would they?" But they don't realize the double edged sword in that case lol.
People lie to themselves constantly.
On top of that people with (genuine) depression will often report themselves as happy because their mental state of feeling nothing is normal to them, or to hide it. "Well I don't feel sad, so I must feel happy"
Watched a video put out by a Dane who explained that it's extremely impolite in nordic society to admit that you're unhappy. He claims that despite indexes like this, Denmark and probably the other Scandinavian nations are actually very unhappy.
Swedes fall into two categories:
People who think they deserve what is happening to their country because of who they are, which never goes away
People who don't think they deserve what is happening to their country but are suffering the consequences nevertheless
Why would either group be happy?
I recall a claim from a few years ago that social mobility in the US is declining and that Denmark now does better. Wouldn't surprise me, but wouldn't vouch for it either, since it was the NYT.
Don't disrespect the paper so many Pulizter prize winning journalists such as Walter Duranty and Nicole Hannah-Jones have worked for.
Lindybeige has a neat video on upward mobility where he suggests that a free society would start with an explosion of upward mobility and then eventually settle once most people have gotten to be where they are needed. And then this would change only as the needs of a society change.
More likely though, I think newer heavy regulations prohibit poorer people from breaking into the middle class.
Except I do t think these studies are self reporting happiness. Usually they cook up some kind of score based on availability of social(ist) services and assume people who get them are happy.
I’d be curious how these studies would turn up if they did ask people if they were happy or not.
I have spent some time living in Sweden. I don't know about the other countries.
Swedish people are extremely... mild. Big emotions are not their thing. There is a reason why you see South American soap operas and not Swedish. They are not a nation of emotionless robots, but are not huge on publicly expressing big feelings.
They are also not used to conflict. Somehow collectively they are not socialised to argue and fight and disagree.
Of course a Swedish person is not likely to publicly just say he or she is fucking unhappy when they know this is a questionnaire to decide what country is "good" and what isn't. They don't want to make trouble and also they are not comfortable with expressing shit.
They can have very strong opinions. It's polite to act mild unless with friends
Of course they can have opinions, but they are not outwardly super passionate.
Great, now my mind is on it. I've met some very rude and pompouse swedes, but also sweet and kind ones. I've always thought the mildness was being polite, and it can be very different when they decide to not be polite.
I'm going to go ask friends about it.
Yea someone else pointed that out too. This data came from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developmen. Wikipedias data comes from the WHO.
The OECD only includes data on the 37 most wealthy countries and claims to get the data directly from the countries themselves. The WHO includes data from all countries and claims to use estimates by their own standards rather than reports from the actual countries. So I have no idea what Conclusion to draw from that.
But another person pointed out that suicide rates may not be representative of the average happiness of a country anyways. Of course neither is self reporting of happiness
They told themselves, "people would be happy if I just died."
And they were right.
This comment will never get the exposure it deserves.
If you're happy and you know it, tie the noose!
To be fair, all of those countries are located near polar regions where sunlight is limited. Lack of sunlight is correlated with depression. Just sayin.
Fair to who?