15 Dec What can we learn from the happiest people – the Danes?
via the Science of Us by Drake Baer
Denmark is always at or near the top of those Happiest Country on Earth lists, and it has been for 30 years. As a tongue-in-cheek article in the British Medical Journal noted, that’s despite the country’s lack of sun or warmth, and a cuisine that could be “politely described as unmemorable.” Within Europe, as their high life-satisfaction scores would indicate, they are perceived as smug and often intoxicated. “A reviewer of our paper suggested that one reason that Danes seem smug may be that they were drunk when they participated [in surveys],” the BMJ says.
In what must be an attestation of that smugness, Danish culture minister Bertel Haarder put out a call to identify the values that make his tiny Scandinavian utopia so magical. The ‘Denmark canon’ received 2,5000 suggestions, cut those down to 20 and put them to a vote. The Local, the English-language blog, reports that over 325,000 Danes — a population greater than all but one Danish city — voted, revealing the values that form, in Haarder’s estimate, the country’s “common cultural DNA.”
You can head to the Local for the full list; here’s a few of the most telling ones, with the Ministry’s description…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE