Interesting map

MAP: A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being, A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being: A Challenge to Positive Psychology? By Adrian G. White, University of Leicester, Psychtalk 56, 17-20

The unremarkable observation: people are--on average--happier in the Core than in the Gap.

Two caveats: oil-rich states inside the Gap tend to be happier; and Russia remains relatively unhappy, despite the boom.

The former is easy to explain: all trust-fund babies are happy---so to speak.

The latter is more the amputating nature of recent history: many in Russia feel oddly cut off from their known past--adrift and disconnected.

(Thanks: Al Anderson)

Comments

[EthanZ]

Tom, this is a bit of a controversial map. I wrote about it roughly a year ago and found myself in the midst of a scholarly tiff between White and some other scholars who appear to have actually collected the data he's using - see http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1253

You're right about the core/gap distinction, for the most part. But there's a challenge to that assessment from the unhappiness of the former Soviet states. It seems that one aspect of unhappiness comes from conditions being worse for the current generation than they were for previous generations...

My personal happiness, like yours, is closely correlated to the success of the Packers... which makes me a very happy man at the moment.

[Michael]

I dunno, there's some gap countries in there showing bright orange or red with no oil (that I know of, anyway)-- Ghana, Mongolia and several countries in Latin America, one of whom (Colombia) is in the middle of a civil war.

[Jimmy J.]

When I was in Russia last year it seemed that the regular people were all very unhappy. I sensed a lack of hope. It appeared to me that, in spite of the boom, there is no sense that the average Russian can be upwardly mobile. Many are getting rich, but most are just scrabbling for the leftovers. At least that was my impression.

[stuart abrams]

Haven't Russians always been unhappy? Isn't that part of their national soul? I don't think anybody ever finished reading a Dostoevsky novel whistling a happy tune. I think happiness is overrated. People are at their best when they are challenged, and that requires dissatisfaction. Happy people get lazy. Look at how happy the Swiss are, and remember that great speech from "The Third Man".