(ORDO NEWS) — For several years in a row, international ratings of the happiest countries in the world have been headed by countries such as Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.
People look with interest (and a little envy) at the countries of the first lines of the rating, wondering: what is the secret?Can there be problems in countries like Denmark and Switzerland?
You have probably heard about the concept of “hygge”, which is common in the Scandinavian countries. After learning about this phenomenon, many people decided to bring certain of its principles into their lives.
However, in a new study, scientists have found that in countries that rank highest in national happiness, people are also more likely to experience poor health due to societal pressure to be happy.
It turned out that for some, living in the “happiest places” can end up being too difficult to live up to such standards.
For several years, scientists from the University of Melbourne, Australia, have been studying the social pressure people experience to appear to be “the happiest.”
Unfortunately, this pressure is also transmitted through channels such as social media, books, and advertising. Eventually, people develop an idea of what emotions are valued (or not valued) by others.
Interestingly, previous research has shown that the more people experience pressure to feel happy, the more likely they are to experience depression. It turns out that the happier the country, the more unhappy it is?
To better delve into this issue, scientists decided to conduct a study among people from other countries. Will these patterns show up?
The authors of the study surveyed 7,443 people from 40 countries about their emotional well-being, life satisfaction (cognitive well-being), and mood complaints (clinical well-being). They then correlated this with their perception of social pressure.
What they found confirmed previous findings. All over the world, people are under pressure that tells them to be happy and avoid sadness. This in turn leads to mental health problems.
That is, they experience less satisfaction with their lives, more negative emotions, fewer positive emotions, and higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress.
This does not mean that, on average, people are unhappy in these “very-most countries”, but it is likely that many of the citizens face constant pressure.
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