S2:4 Climbing the Wrong Ladder? What Happiness Rankings Might Be Missing
From THE HAPPY SCIENCE PODCAST by Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness at the Stockholm School of Economics
July 1, 2025 · 18 min · Season 2 · Episode 4
About this episode
The episode explores how happiness is measured in global surveys and the implications of different questioning methods.
In this fun episode, we dig into a surprisingly overlooked question: What exactly are people thinking about when they rate their happiness on global surveys? Is Finland really the happiest country in the world or just the best at climbing metaphorical ladders? Researcher August Nilsson joins us to explain how the metaphorical “Cantril Ladder” works and reveal how tiny tweaks in how we ask about happiness can dramatically change the answers we get. What happens if we ask about harmony in life instead? Or if we ditch the ladder metaphor altogether? Tune in for a deep dive into the psychology behind how we measure happiness and whether we're asking the right questions at all. Link to the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-52939-y Guest: Researcher August Nilsson
People in this episode
Guest: August Nilsson
Topics covered
- happiness
- psychology
- surveys
- measurement
- Finland
- Cantril Ladder
Keywords
- happiness rankings
- Cantril Ladder
- global surveys
- psychology
- Finland
- life harmony
- measurement
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness at the Stockholm School of Economics, Nature
Books & works: Cantril Ladder
Places: Finland
More episodes of THE HAPPY SCIENCE PODCAST
- Why Your Future Looks Bright (But Your Enemy’s Doesn’t) - with Professor Hallgeir Sjåstad · April 28, 2026 · 16 min
- Is It Easier to Be Happy in Anotther Language? How Language Shapes Happiness Ratings - with Political scientist Sofia Axelson · April 21, 2026 · 16 min
- What Happens to Your Happiness When You Take Money from a Charity? - with Assistant Professor Frank Martela · April 14, 2026 · 16 min
- Does the U.S. Election Affect Happiness in Europe? with Assistant Professor Jareef Martuza · April 6, 2026 · 15 min
- S2:5 From Parents to Partners: How Divorces, DNA and Daily Connections Shape Our Wellbeing · July 1, 2025 · 18 min
- S2:3 The Urban Happiness Gap: Are City Dwellers Destined to Be Less Happy? · July 1, 2025 · 19 min
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