Is it possible to definitively pinpoint what creates ‘happiness’? Every year a group of researchers tackles this question, publishing their findings in an annual World Happiness Report. And given the bin fire that was 2020, the World Happiness Report 2021 has been hotly anticipated. The report was understandably focused on the impact of the health pandemic on people’s feelings of happiness, and some of the findings were surprisingly optimistic. Very on brand!
We highly recommend reading the full report, but be warned – it’s dense. If you’ve only got 7 minutes to give it, read on for the four most insightful lessons for young Australians.
How was the World Happiness Report conducted in 2021?
Each year, researchers conduct surveys with 1000 people in each country asking them to rate their life out of 10 (a ‘life evaluation’). They are also asked whether they experienced a lot of positive emotions (laughed or had enjoyment) the day before, and whether they experienced a lot of negative emotions (worry, sadness, or anger) the day before. In 2020, these were done over the phone rather than the usual in-person interviews.
Having produced World Happiness Reports since 2012, researchers believe there are six key factors that influence a person’s life evaluation and therefore contribute to happiness:
- Level of income
- Health problems
- Having people to count on
- Having freedom to make key life decisions
- Experiencing generosity
- Perception of corruption
The 2020 results revealed an additional factor: having confidence or trust in public institutions. This was driven by governments’ responses to COVID-19, which is separate to the existence of corruption.
Lesson 1: Emotions don’t dictate life satisfaction
The surveys revealed that while COVID-19 clearly made us feel worse, those negative feelings didn’t necessarily affect life as a whole. It’s a strange finding to get your head around.
Globally and on average, overall life evaluations increased compared to the 2017-2019 period. While there was also an increase in negative emotions we experienced, there was no corresponding decrease to positive emotions experienced. In fact, positive emotions remained the same.
So, despite COVID-19 the world was still generally as happy as it was before. But of course this varies between countries.
The 2020 results showed Australians rated their lives as worse when compared to the 17-19 rankings. And while we reported experiencing a slight decrease in positive emotions, we also reported experiencing the same amount of negative emotions as “before COVID” (BC).
We still sit pretty high in the global rankings. Australia ranks 12th with a life evaluation score of 7.137 out of 10.
The Takeaway: When negative emotions go up, that doesn’t automatically mean that positive emotions do down (and vice versa). Emotions do not have to be a permanent reality, and we can experience anger, sadness, and worry, but still enjoy a great life.
Lesson 2: Trust in others is more important than money or health
Results revealed that trust is more important to happiness than researchers previously though – more influential than a person’s level of income, unemployment or health risk. In the report, trust is measured by the person’s response to the question: “If you lost a wallet containing $200, how likely is it to be returned by a) the police, and b) a neighbour or stranger?”
People who believed that their wallet would be returned had higher life evaluations (and therefore, happiness) – their trust in others resulted in a 1.07 increase in their life rating. It’s substantial, given the scale is from 0-10. By comparison, doubling a person’s income would only increase their life evaluation by 0.2 points, and being unemployed decreases it by only 0.430 points.
The pandemic emphasised the importance of trust at both institutional and individual levels. Countries that have a high amount of trust in public institutions (i.e.: the government) had more effective responses to COVID-19 and lower death tolls, as the public is generally happy to follow government public health orders. It’s one of the reasons why Australia has been successful in controlling the virus, along with NZ, Japan, Singapore and others.
On top of that, because the fight against COVID-19 required everyone to ‘play their part’ we were forced to trust that others would do the right thing. Experiencing a large-scale crisis like we are now can actually increase happiness because it gives us an opportunity to see trust in action – it’s called the “happiness bonus”.
The Takeaway: In the past year, trust has had a greater influence on happiness than money, employment or even health. If you want to feel happier, do good things for others – and have faith that others will do good for you.
Lesson 3: The ‘choice’ between health and the economy is false
The World Happiness Report 2021 tackles a question that has been at the core of every COVID-19 discussion. Is health or the economy more important? Surprise, surprise, the answer is they are inextricably linked.
You cannot ‘fix’ the economy without preserving the health of the population. Building happy lives must take both factors into account.
To illustrate this point, the report compared New Zealand and Sweden – countries with similar social attitudes and trust that took very different strategies to COVID-19. NZ shutdown its economy with strict lockdowns to achieve “zero transmission”, while Sweden tried to keep it’s economy open in pursuit of ‘herd immunity’.
One year later, NZ averaged 0.5 deaths per 100,000 people while Sweden had 86.4 deaths per 100,000 people. And as of March 2021, the NZ economy is more open than Sweden in all sectors except for international borders.
Even when compared to other countries in its own region, Sweden’s economy-first strategy didn’t hold up. Norway took a similar approach to NZ – it currently has only 12.6 deaths per 100,000 and its economy shrunk by 2.8% in 2020. Sweden’s economy shrunk by 4.8%.
The Takeaway: No one should have to ‘choose’ between health and the economy. It’s a lesson that applies to countries managing a health pandemic, but also to us as individuals – we are not money-making machines, and you must take care of your health in order to have a happy, productive life.
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Lesson 4: Happiness at work looks different now
COVID-19 has changed the world of work significantly, and for the long-term. The World Happiness Report 2021 defines the 11 factors that determine happiness at work as:
- Sense of achievement
- Having a clear purpose
- Feeling appreciated
- Sense of belonging
- Flexibility (of hours and/or location)
- Having an inclusive and respectful environment
- Ability to learn
- Having a supportive manager
- Fair pay
- Feeling supported
- Trust in colleagues
As the year progressed, three factors significantly declined in importance: achievement, purpose and learning at work. Having flexibility and a supportive manager significantly increased.
The reason why is pretty obvious. With job losses and employment uncertainty hitting people hard, we viewed work for its core function – a source of income for survival – rather than needing it to serve our identity or any higher purpose.
For young people, this could have a lasting impact similar to generations who were ‘coming of age’ in previous recessions. As adults, they were more likely to value financial security than job meaningfulness – which could see a return to viewing work as ‘just a job’ rather than an identity marker or a place of community. Whether that’s a good or bad thing remains to be seen…
The Takeaway: COVID-19 has changed the way we view work – we have taken the focus off achievement, purpose and learning. While income is important, to make us happy work must fit in and around our life (not the other way around).
