Research findings of a recent study found Americans were much happier on inauguration day than South Africans.
The GNH.today index, which measures real-time happiness levels in countries, observed an increase on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
It was on a Monday, a day when “happiness” are fairly low. But Americans scored about 7.63, a weekend high.
Professor Talita Greyling, Wellbeing Expert Economist at the University of Johannesburg, said “this rise in happiness could partly be attributed to the celebratory atmosphere among Trump’s supporters, who viewed the event as a realisation of their political aspirations. Furthermore, the key policy priorities announced by Trump likely also contributed to the increase. His promises to prioritise job creation, renegotiate trade deals to benefit American workers, and secure the nation’s borders resonated strongly with many individuals who felt economically or socially marginalised.”
The GNH.today index in South Africa, showed that happiness was not necessarily sensitive to Trump’s inauguration, but more towards illegal miners stuck underground Buffelsfontein Gold Mine near Stilfontein.
This is where where hundreds of illegal miners were trapped underground with at least 78 fatalities.
Professor Greyling also said some of the negativity in the Happiness index might also be explained by Trump’s focus on “America First” policies and trade protectionism, which raised concerns among South Africans about potential impacts on global trade and the ripple effects on developing economies.
The GNH.today project measures happiness in near real-time based on specific emotion words used in Google searches.
The project was initially launched in April 2019 by Prof Talita Greyling (University of Johannesburg), Dr Stephanie Rossouw (Auckland University of Technology), and Afstereo, with an index based on X (former Twitter) data.
Since then, the GNH.today team has been developing an index exploring alternative big data sources. They found Google search data to be the most efficient predictor of happiness. They have presented the index at different global forums in Luxembourg, Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), and France.
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