Okay, thanks for the correction. Then it’s a bit funny the result has ended up the way it is.
Probably the reason is then that we are taught not to complain about what we get. If you are asked whether you are happy with how things are not, you are supposed to assume that things are already done as well as reasonably possible and, therefore, as well as they can reasonably be. Therefore, you are happy with things. Of course, you might be exceptionally depressed, but you will still be happy about your how your country is run, because you know it’s, by defintion, run as well as it can be.
But, maybe I’m still wrong. I now tried finding that one question in their report, but couldn’t find it in a reasonable time. What has the question been?
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
This is from the FAQ:
So the question is mostly about contentment with life. I think rather than some hushing culture or putting up appearances, the answer why we rank so well is both that we live in a pretty good country comparatively and we are content with fairly little.
Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
A depressed Finn would probably say that “this is the best possible life for me under these circumstances I live within.”
Or, I could phrase the thought this way: “Things are shit, but no can do, so this is the best possible situation currently available for me.”
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
I’d say a depressed person would think that life could be better and that they’re not high up on the ladder, even though they don’t feel like they can get up to the higher rungs.
In either case I would say that’s the same for depressed people elsewhere too, so it wouldn’t affect the ranking.
Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
“Älä valita!” and “Ei pidä turhasta valittaa!” are things you hear a lot more in Finland than in other European countries. In English those would be “Don’t complain” and “Don’t complain if there’s no good reason!”
At least when living in Germany, Ukraine, Spain and the Russia, I heard a lot less of that kind of stuff than what I had gotten used to in Finland. And people also seemed more happy in their everyday lives than what was familiar to me from Finland.
You’ve probably also seen the advertisements by the Helsinki public transportation authority, HSL, telling how we have the best-functioning public transportation in Europe, based on locals in Helsinki giving better ratings for their public transportation than locals in other European cities do. And yet, most of the HSL network is based on bus lines, with only 1½ metro lines and three metro-like local train lines. Anybody who’s been to other European capitals knows that our public transportation is indeed good, but other cities have it a lot better.
If you have 43 units of serotonin per 1 unit of volume in your blood, you’ll say you’re on rung 8 on the ladder of happiness if you’re a Finn, but with the same amount of serotonin in your blood you’ll say you’re on rung 6 or 7 of that same ladder if you’re, say, German. This causes us to score very well in any poll where they ask “how okay are you with how things are going around you?”