Findings on happiness in Diener et al. (2018): study ZZ 2005

Author(s)Diener, E.; Choi, H.; Diener, C.
TitleRevisiting "Most People Are Happy" - And Discovering When They Are Not.
SourcePerspectives on Psychological Science, 2018, Vol. 13, 166 - 170
Public15+ aged, general public, 160 nations, 2005-2015
Last collect period2015
Survey nameGallup World Polls
 Waves 2005-2015
SampleProbability multi-stage random
Respondents N =1468274
Non ResponseNot available
AssesmentMultiple methods
 Telephone interviews in western nations, face-to-face interviews in developing nations.
Happiness measure(s) used
Full textSelfreport on 5 questions A Did you smile and laugh a lot yesterday? Did you experience the following feelings during A LOT OF THE DAY yesterday? B How about enjoyment? C How about sadness? D How about depression? E How about anger? Rated: 1 yes 0 no - no answer, don't know Computation: - Average % positive affect = (A+B)/2 - Average % negative affect = (C+D+E)/3 - Affect Balance = Average % positive affect - Average % negative affect These questions do not measure hedonic level of affect of individual persons adequately, since yesterday's mood does not always correspond with typical average mood. Yet these questions can be used for measuring hedonic level in agregates, such as nations, since individual variations balance out in big samples.
Author's labelHappiness
Page in publication169
Remarks74% of the respondents in the world felt more positive than negative feelings 'yesterday', 18% felt more negative feelings 'yesterday'.
Finding used in
nation ranks

Full textSelfreport on single question: Here is ladder representing the 'ladder of life'. Let's suppose the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you; and the bottom, the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time? 10 best possible 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 worst possible life This question was followed (not preceded) by items on life 5 years ago and 5 years from now.
Author's labelHappiness
Page in publication169
Remarks47% of the respondents evaluated their life above neutral (>5). In the high happiness quintile of nations 67% had a score above 5, in the least happy quintile 33% had a score above 5.
Finding used in
nation ranks

Correlational findings

Author's labelSubject Code
Subject description
Adverse eventsL06ab01Burden of current life-events
Adverse eventsP14abCurrent problems, also classified as above ↑