Bring me sunshine: the designers being briefed to create a happier planet
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This week saw the publication of the 2017 Global Emotions Report, an ambitious survey of the global mood. To compile it, Gallup conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 150,000 people in 142 countries. The report seeks to measure positive and negative daily experiences by asking people to rate their previous day. “Did you feel well rested yesterday? Were you treated with respect all day? Did you smile or laugh a lot? Did you experience enjoyment? Did you learn or do something interesting?” (In response to the latter, 64% of the UK survey said that they did.) And conversely, interviewers asked them if they felt pain, anger, worry or stress.
Politicians have been increasingly paying attention to emotions as indicators of well-being with surveys aimed at measuring citizens’ moods, intangible feelings that escape economic indicators such as GDP and unemployment rates. In 2012 the UN launched its first World Happiness Report, using data also collected by Gallup, and called on member states to place more emphasis on happiness as a measure of social progress and to guide public policy.
In the UN’s report, interviewees are asked about their perceptions of social support, personal freedom and corruption, rating their lives on a ladder from zero to 10. The results correlate closely with a list of the world’s wealthiest nations. Norway is currently the happiest country, followed closely by Denmark and Switzerland, which all rate life satisfaction at an average of 7.5 (the UK is 19th on the index, after Luxembourg and above Chile); at the other end of the spectrum, people from Syria, Burundi, Tanzania and the Central African Republic rate life satisfaction at about three.
