Delving into happiness and its societal effects at the first-ever Nordic Happiness Summit
Finland has topped the global happiness ranking since 2018, with other Nordic countries maintaining strong positions in the top 10. The aim of the Nordic Happiness Summit is to ensure that the Nordic region remains at the forefront of well-being and sustainable progress.
“Happiness should be monitored by the society and considered in policymaking”, says Alina Ianioglo, project manager at Hanken Business Lab.
Together with Hanken Business Lab Director and Professor of Practice Markus Wartiovaara and Associate Professor Niklas Ahlgren, Ianioglo has conducted research on happiness and its correlation with democracy, longevity and health, which are highly influential for improving the quality of life. 140 countries around the world were included in the study, which shows a strong correlation between happiness and life-expectancy as well as happiness and healthy life-expectancy.
“On average we could say that an increase of happiness by one point on a zero to ten scale could lead to an increase of life expectancy by five years and healthy life-expectancy by almost four years”, says Ianioglo.
Happiness a driver of democracy
One of the key note speakers during the event was Micael Dahlen, professor of wellbeing, welfare and happiness at Stockholm School of Economics. He talked about a forthcoming Swedish study in the International Journal of Wellbeing, which shows that people who are less happy are far more prone to vote for political parties in opposition.
“People implicitly seem to relate the government with their current happiness: ‘I’m not happy, therefore I need to vote against the government, because they are not making me happy’. Our colleagues in the US have found a similar pattern.”
In his research, Dahlen has also examined how people's happiness correlates with and impacts their good citizen behaviours.
“We found surprisingly strong correlations between people’s happiness and their inclination to cheat on their taxes, ride the bus for free, break the law, help their fellow citizens. Quite a few behaviours that are really welfare and government behaviours, in practice meaning that more happiness potentially leads to better governance in each and everyone of us. Happiness would fundamentally be a significant factor in and driver of democracy”, says Dahlen.
The Nordic Happiness Summit is a student-led initiative. The annual event, alternating between Finland and Sweden, is co-organised by Hanken School of Economics and the Stockholm School of Economics’ Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness.
Watch the recording from the summit on Youtube:
Nordic Happiness Summit Day 1
Nordic Happiness Summit Day 2
Text: Jessica Gustafsson
Photo: Auno Media