The Nordic secret to happiness: What can we learn from Finland?

The power of benevolent acts

Hello,

This week’s 60-Second Psychology examines what we can learn from the Nordic countries about living a good life.

In March this year, Finland topped the World Happiness Report for the eighth year in a row – a fact that has invited enormous speculation, and a little consternation, given that the US and UK tend to score relatively poorly in comparison.

The WHR is based on a measure of well-being known as the “Cantril Ladder”, which takes the following form:

• Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top.

• The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you.

• On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?

People’s answers are meant to avoid moment-to-moment fluctuations in their moods, and instead represent their general life satisfaction. Every life will have its joys and its sadnesses, and some measures of happiness try to capture these in multiple questions, before averaging them to give a final score. The issue with this approach is that we can’t know how much importance each person will attach to the individual aspects of their lives. You might feel less than satisfied in your work, but very content with your family relationships. Who is to say which should take precedence when assessing your overall quality of life?

We can find happiness by reflecting on the things that add meaning and purpose to our lives (Photo by Harri P on Unsplash)

The Cantril Ladder, in contrast, asks people to make a single judgement for themselves, based on whatever matters to them personally. It tends to be very easily understood by people of all backgrounds and is easily translated across cultures – a crucial advantage when comparing the well-being of different countries. Its simplicity is thought to be its strength.

Here are the top 10 in the most recent rankings, based on this 11-point scale:

1. Finland (7.74)

2. Denmark (7.52)

3. Iceland (7.52)

4. Sweden (7.35)

5. Netherlands (7.31)

6. Costa Rica (7.27)

7. Norway (7.26)

8. Israel (7.23)

9. Luxembourg (7.12)

10. Mexico (6.99)

Australia comes in at 11, New Zealand at 12, Canada at 18, the UK at 23 and the US at 24.

As you would imagine, the countries’ positions on this list shift a little from year to year, but the continued dominance of the Nordic countries – and Finland in particular – over the past decade would seem to suggest that they are doing something right.

Finland’s rugged landscapes present both joys and challenges for its citizens (Photo by SaiKrishna Saketh Yellapragada)

Safety nets

The answer is a combination of many different factors. The Nordic countries have low economic inequality, high levels of social trust and an effective welfare state – with some scientists arguing that they have entered a kind of virtuous cycle. The welfare state has helped reduce inequality, which in turn has helped increase people’s sense of trust in the people around them, and the sense that they are living in a fairer society.

Finnish people’s trust in each other and the quality of their institutions, meanwhile, may mean that they are more willing to see their taxes go into the welfare state. Strikingly, this seems to benefit people at all levels of income: the richest people are happier living in a well-functioning society, even if they have very little risk of needing the social safety net themselves.

Benevolent acts

To determine one form of people’s trust in their fellow citizens, the researchers behind the World Happiness Report carried out a practical experiment – dropping wallets in random places to see how many would be returned to the owner. Across many different countries, people were much more likely to return the wallets than the participants expected.

Crucially, both the expected and actual rates of return predicted people’s happiness, and this was evident in the top 10 rankings. “The Nordic countries are at the top in the rankings for expected return of wallets, and are also much higher than other countries for actual wallet return, an important benevolent act,” the report concluded. “A lost wallet exposes an immediate need, and that call is indeed answered readily in the Nordic countries.”

A sense of purpose

Beyond the report itself, I was interested to read a recent paper examining how Finns appraise their purpose in life. As I’ve written previously, people tend to be healthier and happier when they feel that they are contributing to something bigger than themselves.

Merja Viljanen and Elina Kuusisto surveyed around 800 Finnish teens about their long-term life goals, by rating statements such as:

• I understand my life’s meaning

• I enjoy making plans for the future and working to make them a reality

And answering questions such as:

• How often do you hope to leave the world better than you found it?

Overall, around 40 per cent were considered to have high levels of purpose for both themselves and their community, while 35 per cent were considered to be self-oriented (focusing more on their own lives than others). Just 6 per cent were considered to be “disengaged”, lacking little meaning at all.

This may be a product of the Finnish educational system, which scores extremely well on international rankings of academic success while also placing a strong emphasis on children and adolescents’ overall role in society. “While learning the pupils are building their identity, their understanding of humanity, worldview and philosophy of life and finding their place in the world,” the National Core Curriculum states.

I’d love to hear your views on the factors that influence your happiness, and whether you believe that your culture has some secrets that should be known more widely across the rest of the world.

Please do consider subscribing if you haven’t already, and share this with anyone who might be interested to learn about the Nordic way of happiness.

Have a lovely weekend!

David x

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