Countries in Europe are famous for rooting on their soccer teams, but a recent study conducted at the Imperial College of London showed that the further a country rose in the ranks of the Eurovision Song Contest, the more satisfied their citizens were with their lives. The research was published in the journal BMC Public Health, and the investigators found that even if a country did poorly in the contest, levels of life satisfaction were still higher than when a nation did not participate at all.
The lead author of the work, Dr. Filippos Filippidis, said the project on satisfaction levels and well-being came about from some researchers joking around. His department employs people from all over the EU, and they were sitting around talking about being happy their country was doing well, and it progressed to wondering if there was a correlation between how a nation did at Eurovision and how satisfied they felt in their lives. It turns out there was. Whether it’s a sports team, a music contest, a dance competition or some other national endeavor, it seems that seeing one’s country do well, makes people happy.