The Happiest People

This is a picture of hand made toys made by the hands of kids in Nigeria and Senegal. It comes from a collection called: "The Art of Play: Recycled Toys from Around the World." I like this picture a lot, because it says something about happiness. Something like: "happiness is where you make it."

And, according to this story, Nigeria is the place where happiness is being made most often. The US scored 16th. The U.K. 24th. Here we are, probably the wealthiest and most technologically advanced country in the world, and those Nigerians, with their civil wars and poverty, are happier than we are. What does that tell us?

One thing it definitely tells us: "Survey after survey has shown that the desire for material goods, which has increased hand in hand with average income, is a happiness suppressant."

Maybe it's time to take happiness seriously. Fortunately, we are about a click away from those who are doing so already. Like the World Database of Happiness which includes vast amounts of research and an extensive bibliography of more studies, and Authentic Happiness, a site devoted to a new, and very welcome movement in psychology, started by Martin Seligmen, author of the book by the same name.