‘A successful society is one in which people have a high level of trust in each other – including family members, colleagues, friends, strangers and institutions like Government. Social trust spurs a sense of life satisfaction.’ The world Happiness Report 2015.
This quote is from The Little Book of Lykke – The Danish Search for the Worlds Happiest People by Meik Wiking. Danes are happy because of the high level of trust in their society. Examples of this, according to the book, are parents leaving their babies outside in their prams when they are having a coffee in the local café. Another example is someone who offers a service, like a haircut or mall car repair, may let you come back and pay later if you have forgotten your wallet.
In this chapter of the book, Meik details findings from an experiment conducted by the Readers Digest in 2013 where 12 wallets are dropped in 16 different cities. The wallets have in them a name, a phone number, family photo, business cards, and about £50. The question is…how many wallets would you expect to be returned with the money still in them?
Number of wallets returned:
Helsinki, Finland – 11
Mumbai, India – 9
Budapest, Hungry – 8
New York, USA – 8
Moscow, Russia – 7
Amsterdam, Netherlands – 7
Berlin, Germany – 6
Ljubljana, Slovenia – 6
London, England – 5
Warsaw, Poland – 5
Bucharest, Romania – 4
Rio de Janerio, Brazil – 4
Zurich, Switzerland – 4
Prague, Czech Republic – 3
Madrid, Spain – 2
Lisbon, Portugal – 1
This equates to about 50% across all the countries.
The people who returned the wallets were interviewed. They explained that they too had lost wallets at a point in their life and remembered the relief and pure joy when the wallet was returned safe. They wanted to do that for someone else.
As I reflect on matters of trust in my life, life is easier and more joyful when we can trust those around us. At University, this might be about food in the fridge, buying the next round at the pub or belaying a partner up the climbing wall. I think trust is part of our being, a core value that is embedded in us, it feels good to be trusted, it makes us feel good about ourselves, it connects people.
The people who returned the wallets had empathy, they chose to think about being in that persons shoes who had lost their wallet rather than being selfish and taking the money. Is it therefore about co-operating rather than competing with others? If we have strong empathic skills, we will cooperate with others and be trusted. I think that trust then keeps expanding out making for a happier group of flat mates, circle of friends or wider society.
So, I think this chapter in the book highlights the fact that trust in people is good, it makes for a happier society. Perhaps the thing we can all work on is to be trustworthy, be the person who can be relied on, in all the things that we do.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our Vitamin H: How to get your does of Happiness mini-series! We hope that it’s inspired you to make some simple changes, given you a different perspective or helped foster future goals. If you’d like to do some further reading on this, why not check-out Meik Wikings book which is available via the University Library.