Strangers are about twice as kind as people think, a study looking at happiness across the globe suggests. This year’s World Happiness Report – released on Thursday – measured trust in strangers by deliberately losing wallets, seeing how many were returned and comparing that with how many people thought would be handed in. The rate of wallets returned was almost twice as high as people predicted and the study, which gathered evidence from around the world, found belief in the kindness of others was more closely tied to happiness than previously thought.
The report ranked Finland as the world’s happiest country for the eighth year running, with the US and UK slipping down the list.
John F. Helliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia and a founding editor of the report, said the wallet experiment data showed “people are much happier living where they think people care about each other”.
He added the study showed people were “everywhere too pessimistic”, with wallets much more likely to be returned than predicted.
The 13th annual World Happiness Report, released to mark the UN’s International Day of Happiness, ranks the world’s happiest countries by asking people to evaluate their lives.
The top 10 are:
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
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