Really??? Are All The 10 Happiest Countries in Latin America?

As an expert in Positive Leadership, Work/Fun Balance and Happiness @ work, who works globally from Asia, Gallup's Positive Experience Index results do not match with what I see in reality.

According to Gallup's Positive Experience Index, released for the United Nations' International Day of Happiness on March 20, Paraguay tops the list of 143 countries, with its people reporting the most positive emotions on a daily basis. The rest of the countries in the top 10 are also in Latin America. Gallup's researchers interviewed about 1,000 people in each country, either face to face or over the phone. All of the participants were aged 15 or older, and answered questions about their positive emotions.

I took a closer look at the Gallup website to learn more about their methodology. Here are the questions asked by the Gallup poll: “Did you feel rested today?"; "Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?"; "Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?"; "Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday?"; "Did you experience the following feelings yesterday?" and "How about enjoyment?

First, the name of the survey is "Gallup's Positive Experience Index" and not “Gallup’s World’s Happiest Countries.” In his latest book, “Flourish”, Dr. Martin Seligman, one of the forefathers of Positive Psychology prefer to measure “Well-being” rather than “Happiness”. He developed the P.E.R.M.A. Model of Well-being, where P.E.R.M.A. stands for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Achievement. Thus, Positive Emotions are ONLY ONE out of the five elements of well-being or happiness that can be measured scientifically. Thus Positive Emotions do not equate to Happiness or Well-being.

Another surprising finding was to see Singapore and Philippines with the same score in the 11th place in the index. This is surprising, because just in 2012’s survey, the Philippines was the first as the most emotional country, while Singapore finished last as the most emotionless country in the world. Living in Singapore and having had the opportunity to work in both Singapore and the Philippines, the position of these two countries in the index this year is raising reasonable doubts.

Guardian article on 21st November 2012 had quoted Gallup top man:

"If you measure Singapore by the traditional indicators, they look like one of the best-run countries in the world," Gallup's Jon Clifton was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg report on the survey. "But if you look at everything that makes life worth living, they're not doing so well."

I was curious about how Gallup overcame a few biases, and if it can tell us more from the data collected, so I read more about How Does the Gallup World Poll Work? Some of the questions I have are:

• Is the mix of ages, genders, income and other socio-economic factors similar in each country?
• Is there a difference in positive emotions among generations, genders, income levels and other social indicators within each country?
• Some cultures like those in the Latin America are more extroverted and expressive than Asian reserved cultures. How does Gallup factor in cultural gaps?
• The survey was conducted during different times of the day and week. Is there a difference in results when the poll is taken at? For instance, people tend to be happier towards the latter part of the week, as the weekend looms.

In his book “Happiness by Design,” author and happiness researcher Dr. Paul Dolan raises many flags, questions and doubts on the validity and biases of research about happiness. I feel that we who are in the field of promoting for organisations and nations to measure happiness related indicators, and who offer sustainable tools and interventions to elevate it, might need to go back to the drawing board and correct what we can in the biases, so that information can be useful and more trusted.

Nonetheless, Gallup’s Positive Experience Index indicates that for those with Latin blood, money isn't everything in life. While some of the top 10 countries with highest positive emotions, are among the most economically backward in the world, they are are reported to be among the happiest. As an example, Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 133rd in terms of GDP (nominal) per capita, with 60% of the population living below its poverty line. However when it comes to the Positive Experience Index, it is 5th out of 143 countries! . Although I had not visited Honduras, I started to reach out friends who have been there. They were shocked to hear that Honduras is among the happiest in the world. I was told that the people in Honduras tend have lower aspiration thus more contented than other countries. Looking at the news about Honduras, I found that earlier in March, Honduras Travel Warning from the US government. Honduras has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for the last five years.

The Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens that the level of crime and violence in Honduras remains critically high, although it has declined in the past two years.

Most surveys related to national happiness that I have read so far support the findings that relatively, people in Latin America are happier than other nations with similar or even higher GDP per capita, however, the case of Honduras is worth checking again the data, the sample and the method.

What can we learn from Latin America about having more positive emotions? What can we learn about well being and happiness? It’s certainly something that I would like to gather more in depth research on and write about it in one of my next blog posts. Stay tuned!

Special thanks to my editor NE

My other blog posts:

• Celebrate SMALL Wins 
• Voice Of A Champion - Best Practices In Listening To Your Employees
• Vampires, Zombies & JCL's 
• It Is NOT the End - Use Humor
• Be the Winning Horse - A Story Of Asian Positive Leader
• How To Manage A Toxic Leader? Tips from an Asian Leader
• HOW TO CHASE YOUR CUSTOMERS AWAY
• 60 Seconds of Fun @ Work
• Get Mad! But Smell the Flower, and Replace “!” with “?”
• The Laughter Gap - Overcoming The Law of Repulsion
• Deal With It!
• It's Your Response-Damn-Ability!

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Avi Liran (Economist, MBA) is a global speaker,  thought leader and expert on Work/Fun Balance, Purposeful Positive Leadership and Positive Organisational Transformation especially during Change.

With a title of "Chief Joy-Care Officer" of www.ha-p.com, Avi consults and coaches CxOs from top companies how to drive results by adopting leadership style that ignites intrinsic motivations and drives up engagement, retention, creativity and productivity while having so much more fun and camaraderie.