A happy population , more than associated with the socioeconomic factors of a country (stability, wealth, political situation or even the prevalence of diseases), is determined by genetics. This is stated in the latest study carried out by scientists from the Varna University of Management (Bulgaria) and Michael Bond, from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (China), the results of which are published in The Journal of Happiness Studies.
Out of all these external factors, research has discovered a variable clearly related to human happiness and it is none other than genetics. The experts went to the results of the World Values Survey , a survey on happiness carried out globally between 2000 and 2014, in order to summarize happiness in percentages according to each of the countries of our planet. They also collected population genetic data as well as information on the historical prevalence of diseases from the World Bank.
Then, comparing the happiness observed by the citizens of each country with the sequences of their DNA, they discovered that the citizens who considered themselves the happiest were precisely those who had the genetic variant “rs324420”, responsible for the increase in perception pleasure and decreased pain sensation.
Taking this genetic factor into account, the inhabitants of Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa as well as Mexico and Colombia in Latin America represented the highest degree of happiness. At the opposite extreme, the most unhappy inhabitants with the least presence of the rs324420 gene were Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Taiwan, as well as Iraq and Jordan. In Europe, those with the greatest presence of this genetic variant were the Swedes.
