←back to thread

U.S. hits new low in World Happiness Report

(www.axios.com)
219 points surprisetalk | 1 comments | 25 Sep 25 20:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
Show context
dang ◴[25 Sep 25 22:05 UTC] No.45379783[source]▶
I believe that these self-reported surveys are partly testing the cultural acceptability of complaining—that is, the more unacceptable it is to complain, the happier one comes out in the scoring. How well that corresponds to 'actual' happiness is, of course, a different question.

I base this on experience with some of the 'happy' cultures on the list. However, I would be interested in knowing whether HN members from Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands (to name the top 5) agree with this concept or not.

replies(9): >>45379870 #>>45379925 #>>45380021 #>>45380040 #>>45380087 #>>45380127 #>>45380239 #>>45380280 #>>45380432 #
1. vidarh ◴[25 Sep 25 22:47 UTC] No.45380239[source]▶
I'm Norwegian, and we're down to 7th place, but I've lived half my life in the UK, and I can tell you that Norwegians will complain just as much as people in the UK, if not far more whenever I visit family.

It's the national sport. In fact, if you tell most Norwegians about coming 7th on a World Happiness ranking, odds are high most of us will complain loudly about that too, thinking we deserve a higher spot, and that there's no ways the Finns and especially Swedes can be higher than us on the list (being beaten by the Danes is okay).

In other words, I don't think this matches cultural acceptability of complaining at all. Norwegians will express dissatisfaction loudly and about everything (don't get a Norwegian started on the quality of the roads, or taxes; at the same time, don't get a majority of Norwegians started on "American conditions" or the political parties that might bring them about by lowering taxes), while still generally living pretty great lives.