By Deborah Diaz
Smile! New Zealand is a cheerful country.
Nine out of 10 of us are happy, a survey by Massey University social scientists has discovered.
Of 1200 people questioned in the latest New Zealand Values Study, just over 60 per cent - described as steady, sensible Kiwis of small-town origins - considered themselves "quite happy."
The "very happy" people, just over 30 per cent of those surveyed, were more likely to be upper middle class women.
That left an unhappy 6 per cent and a handful of emotionally out of touch "don't knows."
Happy people enjoy better health than miserable ones, and are more likely to be emotionally attached to their neighbourhood, region and country.
They believe hard work is the key to success, have faith in democracy, respect authority and are twice as likely as unhappy people to trust people.
The study found that the happy people held similar values, and suggested that fitting in with the crowd might contribute to a sense of well-being. "After all, the German people were able to be 'happy' under the Third Reich," said the report of Dr Alan Webster and Dr Paul Perry.
Unhappy people were more likely to live in Auckland or the Waikato, be in their 30s, be working or lower middle class, watch two or three hours of television a day and vote Labour.
They placed less importance on tradition, respect for authority and politics.
They had less confidence in big companies, were more likely to want a redistribution of wealth and were less inclined to accept that poverty came from laziness.
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