PhD Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan

RESEARCH

Croatia is in a happier half of the world

Happiness and life satisfaction survey in Croatia, which was a part of research project of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions 2008, and ordered by Croatian Parliament, was conducted by PhD Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan, scientific adviser of the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar.  

The results were, along with other categories from this research, published in a national report „Quality of Life in Croatia“, for which PhD Kaliterna Lipovčan won the annual 2008 science prize of the Croatian Parliament, together with coauthor PhD Predrag Bejaković scientific adviser of the Institute of Public Finances.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions is a European Union body, with a role to research and provide comparative information, advice and expertise for key actors in the field of EU social and work policy.

The results of various studies have shown that a happy and content citizen gives a bigger contribution to society than a citizen who is not satisfied with his or her working conditions, family relations or social structures, and the politicians are becoming more aware of this fact. Recently, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy said that he will no longer be concerned with the economic outlooks for the prosperity of his county, but the happiness of his citizens. This statement made our collocutor, PhD Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan very happy because „It might prompt Croatia to do continual research of her citizens’ happiness. Our study was done on a one time basis, and continual work could provide information on changes“.
 
What is happiness?

In 17th century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal said that ''happiness is the motive of every act of every man''. This can be considered the motive for research of happiness. Every action is done with hope that it will make us happy otherwise we probably would not take that action at all.

Happiness is defined as positive emotions present through a longer period of time. When we evaluate our feeling of happiness, we rely on two kinds of information: our emotional state and cognitive evaluation. Emotional state gives us information on how much we like the life that we live, and/or what we have or do, while cognitive evaluation helps us determine to what extent we have satisfied our aspirations and whether we have that which we want. The feeling of happiness is very subjective, because we are the only ones who know how happy we are. However, nowadays we can measure and evaluate happiness even at a national level, so we can speak of more happy or less happy nations, nationalities and countries.
 
How did you measure citizens' happiness?
 
There are several ways to estimate the happiness on a national level, and thus we have different kinds of what we call 'happiness index'. The simplest way is to explore individual feeling of happiness in a representative sample of citizens in different counties, and then compare these results. There are several databases that we use and the best known is the „World Database of Happiness“, by a Dutch researcher Ruuth Veenhoven (www.worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl). The results of the research conducted by the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar are also included in that database.

Amongst 144 countries, for which the studies have been conducted between 2000 and 2008, Croatia is at 57th place, and we could say that it is a very good result. According to another prominent happiness index - Happy Planet Index (www.happyplanetindex.org), which includes individual estimates but also the estimated life span and environmental potential of a certain country, Croatia is in a similar position – it took 60th place amongst 143 countries.

I believe that we can be satisfied with these „accomplishments'', because we belong to a better half of happy countries. In the most recent European research, conducted simultaneously in 30 countries in 2008, in respect to feeling of happiness we share 23rd position with Italy, Hungary and Romania.

What do Croatian citizens wish for?

According to our research, that was done in autumn of 2008 and spring of 2009, on big representative samples (4.000 citizens), they want good health, safe job, and good family and friend relations.

Who is 'to blame' for such modest dreams?

If we assume these dreams to be modest, with which I would not agree, we are to blame the global economic crisis, which has apparently overtaken our country. Today, a safe job is something many people worldwide dream of. Good family and friend relations are something in which we differ from many, because our citizens are more satisfied with those relations than many people in Europe. Since various happiness research in the world have shown that good personal relations are the best predictor of future happiness, we have to be glad to have them, but we also have to do our best to keep them that way, to keep our family and friends the most important aspect of happiness and life contentment.

Is happiness index dependant on the place we live in? Where in Europe and Croatia can we find the happiest people?

Some research has shown that nations who live closer to the sea are happier that others. The „World Database of Happiness“ information show that for years the happiest people in Europe live on an island – that is in Ireland. According to Happy Planet Index, the happiest people are in Costa Rica and Dominican Republic. Croatian data support that thesis, because the happiest people in Croatia live in Istria and Croatian Littoral. However, we have to say that the differences in the feeling of happiness between the regions are very small, so we can speak of happier and less happy, but not of happy or unhappy people.

Is happiness dependant on gender? Who is happier – man or woman?

Luckily it is not. Our research, as well as the research work done worldwide, has shown that both genders are equally happy. However, happiness depends on other factors. The research has shown that people are happier if they are more educated, have a working career and live in stable families.

Are genes connected to happiness?

Yes they are, but only about 50 % of feeling of happiness can be explained with genetic influence. Health, features of personality and character are to some extent defined genetically, and in that respect influence the feeling of happiness. But we still have the second half of happiness that we ourselves are responsible for.

Can misfortune of others bring happiness to some people?

Since people are social beings, we are subject to other people, so we can say that not only does the misfortune of other influence our feeling of happiness, but also social relations in a society influence our happiness to some extent. When we speak of happiness on a so called macro level, that is, on the level of the whole society, it is defined as the extent to which people in a certain society can accomplish the values they appreciate and consider important. For example, if you are a religious person, and you live in a society that forbids religion so that you can not participate in religious ceremonials, what level of personal happiness can you expect? Or, another example, if you live in a society that highly values money and material accomplishments, and you are very poor, how satisfied with your life can you be? In all subjective evaluations we rely on others, we compare our selves with people around us, and such is the case with the feeling of personal happiness. Happiness and misfortune of people around us affect our feelings. The most recent research has shown that we can actively participate in raising the level of our happiness by helping others, and results of an American research has shown that we are happier to buy something for someone else, than for ourselves.

Written by Amalija Šašek
Date of publishing:October 9, 2009