This is from the FAQ:
How is your ranking calculated?
Our happiness ranking is based on a single life evaluation question called the Cantril Ladder:
Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 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?
This question is both democratic and universal. Rather than constructing an index from multiple metrics, the Cantril Ladder empowers people to make their own judgements about what matters most, regardless of their culture and background.
The question does not mention concepts like happiness, wellbeing, or satisfaction, so it can be easily translated and understood in many different languages.
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?”
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
I think it’s a very Finnish reaction to try and complain and find faults in any positive news about Finland hah