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.