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Which countries have an eye on the future?
Singapore comes in first, Russia comes in last ("Natasha, we're going to be late!"); not all countries were surveyed. Here is the article and graph, via Private Sector Development blog. Having an orientation toward the future is also strongly correlated with both happiness and confidence.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 19, 2007 at 09:46 PM in Data Source | Permalink
Comments
New Zealand, what a surprise (to me)!
Posted by: Yan Li at Jul 19, 2007 10:17:39 PM
where's South Korea? If Singapore and Taiwan were analyzed, one would logically think that South Korea would also be included... imho
Posted by: Neal at Jul 19, 2007 11:33:00 PM
It's there, Neal, close to Germany and Ireland, they just left out the South in S. Korea...and it can't possibly be North. :)
If having an eye for the future means laying waste to pretty much everything historical in the country and building a veritable Disneyland of the world, it is no surprise to find Singapore atop the charts - the most future-oriented culture is best built upon a foundation where there is little to begin with and thus, quicker and easier to destroy.
Indeed, my country is the shining star of central planning beneath the guise of hassle-free capital investment. Happiness? Woah, I guess this lends additional support to psychology professor Daniel Gilbert's findings that people with limited (or no) choices are comparatively happier.
Now to hunt down this research study and examine its precise methods...
Posted by: veblen at Jul 19, 2007 11:39:39 PM
It's well-known among polling organizations that slight, seemingly trivial changes in wording of a questionnaire can produce large differences in poll numbers.
It seems that translation to different languages might produce a similar effect. I'm always skeptical when reading such transnational polls: to what extent are country differences due to translation artifacts? How carefully can researchers control this, given that in most cases they will be unfamiliar with most of the target languages and have to outsource the translation and polling?
Posted by: anonymous at Jul 20, 2007 12:20:02 AM
Heh, as someone living in Singapore, I would dispute the correlation with happiness and confidence. Though, it may well be because Singaporeans are generally fatalistic... I must admit, Singapore is very future-oriented, though their crystal ball doesn't seem all that effective.
Posted by: Rajan R at Jul 20, 2007 6:34:23 AM
Interesting no sub-saharan african countries are represented in the chart. Were they part of the larger 60+ country data set?
Posted by: Hopefully Anonymous at Jul 20, 2007 7:45:03 AM
Perhaps happier people are more willing to think their future will also be full of happiness, and thus will pay more attention to it?
This tidbit interests me for some reason: "What’s more, most people feel their cultures aren’t as forward thinking as they should be."
I wonder what would cause that.
Posted by: Robert at Jul 20, 2007 2:03:35 PM
I was kind of surprised to see that Slovenia was ranked as the most competitive country on the chart. I was also rather surprised to realize that I didn't know a single thing about Slovenia, other than that it's somewhere in Europe. I can't help but wonder what makes Slovenia so competitive, and why we never hear anything about the country.
Posted by: Neil H. at Jul 21, 2007 4:08:59 AM
