World's Happiest People? You Gotta Be Kidding!

Buz you and the others are arguing past each other.What we have is a measure made that is supposed to indicate overall happiness of a population. The results of this indicate that Nigerians are, by this definition, HAPPY.This is in spite of all that you have said. All you have said may well be true. But all we have to measure some sort of average happiness is this survey.There is no good being incredulous. I find it surprising too. The only thing that makes sense is to more closely examine the nature of the measurements made and the methodology. Since we don't have access to that I think we don't have anything to discuss.The other approach might be to find other surveys of "happiness" that have been made. What is it that correlates with happiness. We all suspect that material wealth is not well correlated with happiness. Is living in a peaceful country? I imagine it is, as you do. However, maybe it doesn't correlate well. If that were true in other surveys then the results of this survey aren't so surprising.We might also, as you seem to suggest, examine who the people were who made this survey, do we think they have a specific axe to grind? Why do we? (other than simple paranoia) Motive? What good does it do to give results like this? How are they being used? What other countries are given? What do we think of the over all results.I have certainly read a bunch of anecdotal stuff were individuals marvel at how happy impoverished, downtrodden people are. This, of course, proves nothing, but indicates that it is not impossible to be happy under conditions you and I might find appalling.Without all this I don't think there is much use of further discussion on either side.All we have is that someone told us a study says Nigerians are very happy. We have no idea about the reliability of that. However, we do feel that it is not impossible even if we individual are very surprised.

I'm sure we are all aware of the social sciences. However, I don't think anyone has actually discussed the science behind this survey (or whatever).It may well be very accurate. It may be junk science.I haven't seen a scarp posted to pick either side. You seem to think, Buz, that I agree with you. I don't. However, while I think your reasons for what you do believe are very suspect (even dangerous) I also think that you might be right saying that the survey could be wrong too. I neither disagree nor agree. We don't know.

I haven't read this yet. But finally it seems it might be appropriate to actually read something about the real survey.Buz you should have posted a link to it in the first place.http://wvs.isr.umich.edu/Ok I've started to browse it. Is it possible that the whole thing is based on bad initial input?
This chart:
Subjective well-being by level of economic development.
at http://wvs.isr.umich.edu/fig.shtmlHas Nigeria with a good percentage of "happy" (about 75%) with very low GNP. However a bunch of countries (and all the ones you might expect) are over 80 and 90%.On this chart Iceland seems to be on top. With the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark right up there.It will take more reading. Perhaps Buz could quote more from the New Scientist article to see where it got it's information.[This message has been edited by NosyNed, 10-09-2003]

This is very unfortunate. What you have posted is a popular news bureau's reference (without direct quotes ) to a secondary source discussing the original material.If what I found is the original material then my guess is that New Scientist has Nigeria happiest on *a per GNP basis*. This is what I see in the graph I found. The "per GNP" got lost in the shuffle somehow.When there is controversy Buz, or you don't accept the results of work of this type. It is important to get back to the original material and understand it. It is not a good idea to hop on something that is twice removed from the original.I still don't know if I've gotten to the right source but what I did find gives an interpretation that is more believable for all of us I think.And the Nigerians are still pretty happy by the results shown. What I haven't dug into is what "happy" means in this context.

Buz, I hope you don't take the fact that it was on "all the major networks" as being independant corroboration of the material. This is almost always the case. My guess is that they were all lifting from the New Scientists article or a single science writer who supplied it on a wire service. It doesn't matter how many times something is repeated, it can still be wrong. That is why it is necessary to go back to the sources.

I haven't noticed the others actually accepting the original interpretation or not. I think that your source got it wrong. But don't care enough to dig it out. The others aren't agreeing or disagrreing with the "happiness" of Nigeria. They are strongly disagreeing with bigotry being used as a reason for rejecting it.My reading of what might be the original material is that Nigerians are, on average, the happiest on a per GNP per captia basis. I see nothing very unlikely about that result. Especially when I step back and look at where other countries fall.

Oh and I'm finished, it is not really that important anyway. It is amazing how long we go on about some things.