Filipinos among the most positive in world

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos are among the top nationalities in the world that experience a lot of positive emotions, a survey by US-based research firm Gallup reveals.

Published on Wednesday, Gallup's Positive Experience Index worldwide survey shows that Filipino respondents report more positive emotions than most of those in 183 countries surveyed in 2013.

The Philippines, with a positive experience score of 80, is tied with Southeast Asian neighbors Thailand and Indonesia in 13th place, garnering the sixth-highest score. A total of 138 countries were included in the poll.

Gallup asked respondents to answer "yes" or "no" when asked whether they experienced positive emotions the previous day such as enjoyment (laughing or smiling a lot), feeling well-rested, being treated with respect, or sense of accomplishment from something learned or did.

"Gallup compiles the 'yes' results into a Positive Experience Index score for each country," Gallup researcher Jon Clifton said in an article posted on the Gallup website.

For the third year in a row, Paraguay topped the list with 87, closely followed by Panama with 83. Three other South American countries—Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Ecuador—are tied in the third place with a score of 83.

"Of the 10 countries in the world with the highest percentages experiencing all of these positive emotions, all but one of them is in Latin America," Clifton, referring to Denmark.

From Gallup

"That so many people are reporting positive emotions in Latin America at least partly reflects the cultural tendency in the region to focus on the positives in life," he added.

Same can be said with the three countries in Southeast Asia on the list.

Gallup noted that approximately 1,000 adults for each country were interviewed via telephone and face-to-face meeting. The margin of sampling error, meanwhile, is ±1 percentage point at the 95 percent confidence level.

Behind a 'yes'

Clifton said that a strong indicator behind a "yes" answer confirming a positive emotion is income, but only up to a point.

The researcher said that there was a 10-percentage-point gap globally between the highest and lowest income brackets, with those who belong to higher tiers tend to have more positive experiences on the survey day.

"A higher income level makes a significant impact on a person's overall happiness, but only up to $75,000. Above that level, income makes much less of a difference," Clifton explained.

Positive emotions was also found to have a more impact on societal progress than solely economic indicators, particularly in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.