07 April 2008

Unhappy Japan

Japan is apparently a very unhappy place. In a Discover report on a recent study, Japan is ranked 90th:

"Japan's ranking (90th) was surprisingly low given its high scores for health, wealth, and education. White suspects cultural factors may be at work. Some researchers speculate that a focus on competition and a tendency to downplay enjoyment may contribute to low reported happiness among some Asian cultures."

Denmark is ranked 1st. Iceland is ranked 4th which is not surprising giving its 'party culture' too.

3 comments:

Ole' Wolvie said...

Maybe they are just more honest about expressing unhappines? Or, maybe they tend to not boast about being happy?

I am pretty sure the study did not take cultural bias into consideration. Plus, deluded people can be very, very happy regardless of the situation.

These kind of studies are hardly worth the paper they are printed on.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

The study did mention that cultural bias was not taken into account. It was self-reported after all.

As for the worth, I think it is interesting as to how societies perceive themselves rather than as a quantitative gauge of anything.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Of course, we don't know the sampling size either and the parameters or conditions. Environmental factors too.