The Dark Side of Happiness

Or, how to analyze a conclusion

Newly-released research, “Perceiving societal pressure to be happy is linked to poor well-being, especially in happy nations” shows that people living in “happy” countries are more likely to “suffer from poor well-being” from the “societal pressure to be happy.”

Let’s take a look at this finding.

Country Happy

More people in your country are happy than other countries. OK, good. It might even be a source of pride for your nation. Also good. Doubtless some people are not happy there. Inevitable. With so many happy people, there are not a lot of people to commiserate with. There might even be pressure to seem happy to keep up your country’s standing among nations. This study published in Nature.com suggests it is true.

Country Not-So-Hot

Let’s look at a not-happy country. You are not proud of this, and rarely brag about the misery around you. You would be in the majority, however, and have lots of people to discuss this predicament with. The good news is no one is telling you to s…