The 2021 World Happiness Report is out, and it's a stunner. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions and made everyone else miserable, so it's no surprise that happiness plummeted last—
Wait. That's not what happened at all. On a scale of 1-10, average happiness in 2020 was flat compared to 2019. Among large industrialized nations, more countries reported an increase in happiness than a decrease:
The United States recorded an increase of 0.09 points—not much, admittedly, but it is an increase, not a decrease.
In other words, for all our moaning and groaning, the pandemic apparently didn't make us unhappy. Or, at the very least, not enough to make us change our response to pollsters who asked about it.
To me, this is evidence for the "thermostat" theory of happiness, namely that we basically all have a set-point of happiness and we stay there most of the time unless something truly terrible or truly great happens. The pandemic apparently didn't qualify as all that terrible. Go figure.
Having such a good time,
https://i.redd.it/7g3mod86yoo61.gif
so....would the sheep climb back into the tire swing?
😉
You'd have to ask him after he croaks, if he'd do it all again.
To me this more likely suggests the report is flawed.
Or perhaps your theory of society is broken?
Oh, no, it certainly can't be that...
If my theory is wrong it just means nost people are bimbos. Also a possibility!
So much for surveys.
I know I'm lucky, but the last year was actually pretty enjoyable. I'm extremely fortunate enough to not now anyone that has died (or was even very sick) from Covid. But, most people I know are the same. We got to work from home all year. Took a respite from kids' sports and other hustle and bustle for a few months last Spring. More time to be with family and friends since not commuting. Finances are in better shape. And for the last several months (at least here in Florida) everything has been back to normal. Again, I know I'm fortunate compared to many, but I agree that it's been a pretty good year.
The survey is apparently based on the usual polling sample size of about 1000 for each country, which typically means error limits of several percent. On a scale of zero to ten, 0.1 is one percent, so that much difference does not look very significant. What would be most interesting is the numbers for some countries over the 9 years the survey has been taken. Did last year really make much difference compared to previous yearly variation?
I guess those of us who avoided dying from the virus avoided a whole lot of annoying business meetings and family gatherings. Not bad.
Unlike what Republicans believe, dead people don't vote.
Close it up.
We have a winner.
Maybe there are a lot more introverts than we thought?
I have to think if you lost your job, or a good chunk of your income, as many did this year, it sucked a lot. But who knows? Maybe that downtime allowed you to pursue other interests, start a new career, focus more on the kids?
For those fortunate professionals, academics, and tech workers who were able to switch to remote work, it was a mixed bag. I really like the social aspects of my job and was miserable with remote work, whereas my wife was living her best life and not having to deal with a lot of irritations that came with her in-person workplace. So my happiness took a hit, but she's a lot more satisfied and wishes she could just stay at home!
I think that our perceived happiness is relative to a counterfactual. So, those of us who didn't get sick and didn't lose a lot of income are happier because it could have been so much worse for us. Even those who lost some income or got mildly sick are happy compared to their counterfactual.
Something seems off when South Korea, Australia, and Canada, all among the nations that handled the pandemic the best, keeping the deaths low, all show a decrease in happiness, while people in the nations like the US, France, Spain, and Italy, who suffered some of the worst outbreaks and who one way or another botched things, are the ones showing an increase.
Denial.
For a lot of people in the US this was a great year. A combined tax reduction (stimulus) of $3200 per filer or double that for married couples. Plus temporary suspension of debt payments and for some a $600+ per week paid late spring sabbatical.
Also I would not discount the fact that many people took this opportunity to reevaluate what was important to them and decided to remove some of the negative things they had been tolerating in their lives.
Sure there were also many people who had terrible losses but all and all I am not surprised that aggregate happiness did not plunge.
Totally agree. I wouldn't go around saying this because it's insensitive to people that have suffered, but for me and my family, this past year has been great.
China isn’t a large, industrialized country? ... Or Russia? I’m sure they’d each be more than happy... to allow polling?
Happiness surveys are ridiculous. The "happiest" countries are always ones which are also extremely conformist, like Holland (from where I originally hail) and Scandinavia. That's not because conformism makes people happy, but because they're told they have everything they want and so they'll respond: "We're happy". What's more, everything is perfect, isn't it, so if they're lonely and depressed it must be their own fault, and they won't admit that. Yet these are countries where antidepressants are as common in cupboards as milk.
I've always thought that the best way to measure happiness is not to ask people, but to count smiles. The tropics would then be the happiest places (which conforms to my experience). The farther North you go, the less smiles. By the time you reach Sweden, you'll see less smiles on faces than Prozac in handbags.