By Jeremy Adam Smith and Kira M. Newman, Greater Good Magazine, January 4, 2022
In the first half of 2021, the Pew Research Center surveyed almost 20,000 people in 17 countries. Their question was simple: “What aspects of your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling, or satisfying?”
Each of these advanced economies—including Canada, France, Greece, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan—was having a different experience at the time. Some were ravaged by COVID-19 and some had very low case counts; many were in economic doldrums, while others were doing fine. In some of these countries, people traveled freely; in others, like Australia and New Zealand, movement was severely curtailed. And, of course, each country has a different culture and history, often encompassing many regional or minority traditions, values, and dialects.
Coders analyzed people’s open-ended responses for themes, which were separated into categories like family, friends, institutions, work, hobbies, and pets. In some ways, the overall results weren’t surprising. “Family is preeminent for most publics but work, material well-being, and health also play a key role” in people’s sense of meaning, write the researchers in their report. Indeed, people ranked family as their main source of meaning in 14 out of the 17 countries.
Comments (0)