What has happened to people's happiness all around the world as they've faced the economic crisis? How have they coped with job losses, less money coming in, the sense of despair and lack of control over a nightmare that seems to have no end?
That's the question that Helliwell et al. (2013) ask in a new paper in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
They guessed that one answer is one of the oldest in human civilisation: by pulling together.
Pulling together, though, has a new fancy name: social capital. Here are the kinds of things which tell you whether a group of people have 'social capital':
- How many people do volunteer work in the community?
- How many people have done a favour for a neighbour in the last month?
- How many people have given a little money to charity (about $25)?
- How many people regularly have meals together as a family?
Source material from PsyBlog