The Economist March 20th 2021 pp53-54 |International|”Global happiness” “It might seem crazy” “The pandemic has changed the shape of global happiness”
Cantril Ladder. Image from innobatics.com
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Summary of the article
The Gallup organization has polled people in 95 countries regarding their happiness using a tool known as the Cantril Ladder asking residents to state which rung of the ladder they feel they are currently standing on with ten being the top. From before the pandemic, 2017-2019, the rating was 5.81 and in 2020 slightly higher at 5.85. How to explain this? For Britain by age group, 16-29/30-49/50-69/70+ in 2017 there was a u-shaped curve ~7.8/~7.6/~7.7/~7.9 while in 2021 (Jan-Mar) Ladder scores were more of a concave up-shaped curve ~6/~6.3/~6.5/~7.4. These data suggest that younger groups have been hit harder by the pandemic and that older groups feel they have been protected by community actions recognizing their greater risk from COVID-19 and getting them vaccinated first. They are actually not healthier but they feel they dodged a potentially fatal outcome. Also, many in the older groups are thought to have adapted relatively well by adopting video-conferencing keeping them in possibly better touch with relatives and friends than prior to the pandemic. Younger groups were likely more impacted by the effects of social restrictions and economic fallout from lower employment etc. “In America the unemployment rate for people aged 20-24 shot up from 6.3% in February 2020 to 25.6% two months later (it fell back to 9.6% last month).” Women suffered more unemployment and took on more child-rearing duties lowering their level of happiness.
Countries that where happiness has risen in this period include Finland (Excess death rate <21/100K), Iceland (Excess death rate <21/100K) , Germany (Excess death rate 27/100K) , United States (Excess death rate estimated ~142/100K), Taiwan, Japan, China, South Africa, India and Tanzania while those where happiness has fallen include Denmark (Excess death rate <21/100K) , Sweden, Britain (Excess death rate 190/100K) , Mexico, South Korea and Zimbabwe. Happier countries include, although not exclusively, those that were more successful in managing the pandemic or were less socially-inclined while those struggling have at least one of the following elements being poor, highly social, and/or have less trust in the ability of government to help. In aggregate these factors resulted in the population being less able to conform to suggested restrictions. It is thought that America’s paradoxical happiness despite a high death rate may relate to the patchwork of state-by-state restrictions, those with less restrictions being happier, and the effects of “extreme partisanship” allowing “people’s spirits to rise.” A survey from the University of Southern California noted that “mental stress and anxiety shot up in America last March and April, but then subsided.”