Americans make too many solo reservations.
It was to remember from the World Happiness annual postponement, which was published on Thursday and showed that the United States had plunged in its lowest place in the country’s classification – 24th – after being classified as high as 11th in 2012, the first year of the report.
Americans are increasingly miserable, says the report, and he explored a possible indicator: the number of Americans eat alone has exponentially increased this century.
In 2023, according to data from the survey of the use of American time of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately a quarter of Americans said they had eaten all their meals alone the day before, an increase of 53% since 2003.
“The extent to which you share meals is predictive of social support you have, pro-social behavior you present and the confidence you have in others“” Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, professor of Oxford and author of the report, said in an interview.
This trend is even more pronounced among young people. For American adults under the age of 25, there was an increase of 80% of meals alone, figures that Dr de Neve called “disconcerting”. The survey, which is compiled each year by a consortium of groups, in particular the United Nations and Gallup, offers another point of data in the so-called Solitude of Solitude, which researchers and officials have declared in recent years become a greater concern, in particular among young men when they spend more and more time on their phones.
Eating alone also increases political polarization, said Dr. de Neve.
“The fact that we are more and more socially isolated also means that we do not test our ideas on the world with other people,” he said. “And the more you sit around the table with other people who could have somewhat different opinions, the more you start to moderate your own opinions. And the growing lack of social interaction and social isolation accordingly, for many people – amplified by the chambers of echo – makes people more radical radical. “”
The report also argues that the drop in happiness and social confidence in the United States and in certain parts of Europe has led a series of “anti-system” political victories, such as the election of President Trump, and an increase in political polarization. According to the study, the share of American people who trust others has decreased by almost half since the 1970s, going to 30% by 50%.
“Extreme -left voters have a higher level of social confidence, while right -wing populists have a very low level of social confidence,” said the report.
For the eighth consecutive year, Finland took first place in the ranking. Of course, everyone in Finland is not satisfied with the investigation, which essentially asks the residents of the countries to assess their own happiness. The study explains the last three years.
Thursday, during a round table on the report to Washington, DC, Leena-Kkaisa Mikkola, Ambassador of Finland to the United States, explained several theories to explain why the Finns have been so happy for so long. They understood confidence among the fellow citizens and in the education system, the proximity of nature and the “weekly sauna sessions”.
“Our American friends, you smile and laugh a lot more than us,” said Mikkola during the round table, organized by the Digital News Outlet SEMAFOR. “But happiness for us may be happy.”
In an interview, Ms. Mikkola said that Finland had other structural advantages in the United States, including its size.
“In a small country, there may also be more of this consciousness that we need each other,” she said. “In a larger country, you can somehow put yourself in different corners. “”
Costa Rica (n ° 6) and Mexico (n ° 10) have entered the top 10 for the first time, and other countries such as Lithuania (16th, up the 19th) and Slovenia (19th, up compared to the 21st) continued to rise in the ranking.
During the round table, Catalina Crespo Sancho, Ambassador of Costa Rica to the United States, compared the population of her country to lazy – in the right direction.
“They are very slow, yes. But no one wants to eat them,” said Ms. Sancho. “They don’t want to eat anyone or one of the other animals in the forest. They get along with everyone. All animals get along with them. However, they arrive where they must obtain, even if it takes forever to cross a road. ”
But with regard to the United States, Ms. Mikkola remained optimistic: “I did not meet an unpleasant person during my six months.”
