Top Stories - Posted by Peter Dunn-Warwick on Monday, April 25, 2011 10:48 - 5 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Higher suicide rates in happy places
“Discontented people in a happy place may feel particularly harshly treated by life. Those dark contrasts may in turn increase the risk of suicide. If humans are subject to mood swings, the lows of life may thus be most tolerable in an environment in which other humans are unhappy," says Andrew Oswald. (Credit: iStockphoto)
U. WARWICK (UK) — New research confirms a little known and seemingly puzzling fact: Many happy countries have unusually high rates of suicide.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
The researchers—Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick and economist Stephen Wu of Hamilton College and Mary Daly and Daniel Wilson both from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco—suspect the explanation may relate to the way human beings rely on relative comparisons between each other.
“Discontented people in a happy place may feel particularly harshly treated by life. Those dark contrasts may in turn increase the risk of suicide,” says Oswald. “If humans are subject to mood swings, the lows of life may thus be most tolerable in an environment in which other humans are unhappy.”
The study, accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, uses U.S. and international data, including first-time comparisons of a newly available random sample of 1.3 million Americans. A range of nations—Canada, the United States, Iceland, Ireland, and Switzerland—display relatively high happiness levels and yet also have high suicide rates.
However, researchers note that because of variation in cultures and suicide-reporting conventions such cross-country scatter plots are only suggestive. To confirm the relationship between levels of happiness and rates of suicide within a geographical area, the researchers turned to two very large data sets covering a single country, the United States.
The scientific advantage of comparing happiness and suicide rates across U.S. states is that cultural background, national institutions, language, and religion are relatively constant across a single country. While still not absolutely perfect, comparing the different areas of the country gave a much more homogeneous population to examine rather than a global sample of nations.
Comparing U.S. states in this way produced the same result. States with people who are generally more satisfied with their lives tended to have higher suicide rates than those with lower average levels of life satisfaction. For example, the raw data showed that Utah is ranked first in life-satisfaction, but has the 9th-highest suicide rate. Meanwhile, New York was ranked 45th in life satisfaction, yet had the lowest suicide rate in the country.
The researchers then also tried to make their comparison more homogeneous by adjusting for clear population differences between the states, including age, gender, race, education, income, marital status, and employment status. This still produced a very strong correlation between happiness levels and suicide rates although some states shifted their positions slightly.
Hawaii, which ranks second in adjusted average life satisfaction, has the fifth highest suicide rate in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, for example, New Jersey ranked near the bottom in adjusted life satisfaction (47th) and had one of the lowest adjusted suicide risks (coincidentally, also the 47th highest rate).
“This result is consistent with other research that shows that people judge their well-being in comparison to others around them. These types of comparison effects have also been shown with regards to income, unemployment, crime, and obesity,” says Wu.
More news from the University of Warwick: www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/
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5 Comments
ophu
Laura
Aha! Now I understand our insanely high property taxes here in NJ (47th in state happiness and 47th in state suicide jrate). They’re designed to keep us miserable so we won’t kill ourselves. That must be the reason for the high taxes, because other than that, I (and most New Jerseyans) are exteremly happy living here.
Aloha Bobby
My take on it all, being a lifelong NYer who moved to Hawaii a few months ago? In NY, people actually find great pleasure in kvetching. It’s like a sport and think it’s good for the soul, relieving us of our burdens. (Hey, I’m walkin’ here! – Ratso in Midnight Cowboy.)
By contrast, there is a lot in Hawaii that seems almost saccharine sweet and everything must be great and marvy and fab at all times. Critique ANYthing and people think you’re a freak. So, while many things are very pleasant, there is an undercurrent of anxiety and dissatisfaction that is both unexpected and isn’t dealt with in an open way.
I go into it more on my website, absolute-hawaii.com.
the Mad LOLScientist, FCD
No puzzle at all to anyone, myself included, who’s lived with depression for decades. Oswald hits the nail squarely on the head: depressed people in “happy” environments do feel the contrast more intensely. Too often the situation is made even worse by well-meaning “happy” people who think “depression” equals “sadness” and take it upon themselves to try to “cheer you up.” If indeed “misery loves company,” it’s because in a less-happy environment we don’t feel the contrast – or the social pressure “not to be a downer” – as much.
fj
no mistery here because those who committed suicide were never included in the mental health/well-being surveys to beging with. classical case of selection bias. wow publishing standards are low these days…
As they say, misery loves company. :|