baseline happiness

[Portia]

After an initial inquiry into Google Scholar, I have come to the tentative conclusion that an individual's baseline happiness (a) varies throughout the lifespan (b) depends on your generational cohort (c) may be reported differently if you have them check a yes/no box versus doing a more in-depth survey. Also, Finns.

So if you're already ill, being happy won't make you live longer, but if you're healthy, it will. (Veenhoven, 2007)

Nearly two-thirds of Finns in 2002 reported being "fairly happy," so 4 on a 1-5 Likert scale. Surprise, surprise, if you report 1 or 2, you're a high suicide risk.

BUT. It's well-known that Finland is a small, homogeneous Nordic country. I don't think this pre-crash sample of those living in the country with arguably the best secondary education system in the world is applicable to USA, 2015. I just ordered The Almost Nearly Perfect People. Despite the subtitle, he's looking at 5 Nordic countries, not just Scandinavia proper, and let me tell you, his central thesis hasn't convinced me yet from my initial reading. It looks like they're doing quite well, all in all, on a Benthamian metric.)

This article on the stability of life satisfaction (in ... Finns ...) is older, but has the advantage of checking in with people across their lives. Check out this table. On a scale of 4 to 20, does a score of between 8 and 9 seem wildly, euphorically happy to you? Yeah, me neither.

So, constant reader, I would say that most people, Finnish or not, don't wake up and pop out of bed feeling like they've just won the lottery and taken a double dose of uppers. Probably most people start off neutral, but their minds interpret that as "fairly satisfactory."

[Tally M.]

Funny. I've come across sources that pin Finns and other Nordics as extremely unhappy. I'll dig for them when I'm off my phone.