Are Happier Countries More Innovative?
The Happiness Report ranks over 150 countries based on their happiness levels (http://worldhappiness.report/). According to the report, the 6 key variables that lead to happiness are:
Income
Healthy life expectancy
Social support
Freedom to make life choices
Trust
Generosity
These variables support well-being, and thus make people happy.
The 10 happiest countries, according to the report, are:
Finland
Norway
Denmark
Iceland
Switzerland
Netherlands
Canada
New Zealand
Sweden
Australia
Because I love correlations and had so much fun last month 🤓 (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovation-culture-how-connected-nicole-barile), I wanted to see what other correlations to innovation I could find. Again, I used the Global Innovation Index (GII) for my data.
Could there be any correlation between a country’s happiness and innovation levels?
For those not familiar with the topic, correlation indicates if there is a relationship between two variables, and if so, how strong. This correlation can be positive, negative, or null. A positive relationship between two variables indicates that as one increases so does the other. A negative relationship indicates that as one increases the other decreases. Take age and hair growth, for example. These two variables are negatively correlated, because typically, as a person’s age increases, the less hair he has.
In examining innovation and happiness levels, I discovered a strong positive linear correlation of +.73 (+1 is a perfect positive correlation). This number indicates that the happier a country, the more innovative it is likely to be. The hard part is figuring out why this could be so.
Why would happier countries be more innovative?
Well, when looking at the 6 variables above, it seems to be a combination of several different factors. Obviously income plays a big role. One could easily argue that countries with more money will have more scientific and technical resources available to them, and thus be more innovative. But what about the other 5 factors? What is their connection to innovation? These 5 - social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and trust are what I find most interesting. They are social factors; social factors that are linked to societal well-being. When people feel safe, supported, taken care of, altruistic, and free, they are more likely to innovate. According to Abbas J. Ali (Competitiveness Review, Vol.24, Issue 1), when people are in a state of happiness, they “are more optimistic, confident, and are willing to navigate untested terrains to achieve goals and build sound institutions” (2014). Societies that promote the well-being of their citizens breed happiness, and in turn, facilitate innovation... proving that innovation is not just an economic issue, but a social one.
Contact me at hello@nicolebarile.com if you’d like to learn more or visit me here. #futureofglobalwork