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Can a society’s overall level of happiness change? Until recently, it was widely held that happiness fluctuates around set-points, so that neither individuals nor societies can lastingly increase their happiness. However, data from surveys carried out in Russia from 1982 to 2011 show that happiness fell substantially following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has begun to rise again only recently. Additional data sources, including suicide rates and indices of negative affect expression, confirm these shifts. Contrary to set-point theory, we find that the recent increase has been driven as much by generational replacement as by mean reversion among individuals. The collapse of communism led to a permanent drop in subjective wellbeing among mid-life cohorts that was subsequently never fully recovered. Happiness can be substantially and permanently impacted by life-events, including those affecting society as a whole, and societal-level happiness can rise or fall over time as a result.

This paper analyzes the relationship between support of democracy and attitudes to human rights: in particular, support for gender equality in the countries covered by the first wave of the Arab Barometer project. We used cluster analysis and negative binomial regression modeling to show that, unlike in most countries of the world, the correlation between support of democracy and gender equality is very low in Arab countries. There is a group of people in the region who support both democracy and gender equality, but they are a small group (about 17% of the population) of elderly and middle-aged people characterized by higher education and social status. A substantial number of poorly educated males express support for democracy, but not for gender equality. Many people (especially young males aged 25-35 in 2007) are against both gender equality and democracy. Younger people tend to be both better educated and more conservative -- those belonging to the 25-34 age group are the most patriarchal in their gender attitudes. Controlling for age, education still has a positive effect on gender equality attitudes. Nevertheless, this phenomenon probably means that there are two simultaneous processes going on in the Middle East. On the one hand, people are becoming more educated, urbanized etc., which means the continuation of modernization. On the other hand, we observed a certain retrogression of social values.

DAVID LAITIN PURPORTEDLY SHOWS THAT ASSIMILATION of the Russian-speakers is more likely in Estonia than in Ukraine. His research focused on the Russians' openness to assimilation and underestimated the forbidding attitude of the Estonians, which hardly favours such assimilation. Furthermore, he referred to a number of incentives to assimilate in the distant future, while failing to recognise the prospects for growing political power of the Estonian Russian-speakers in the near future that might upset the whole structure of incentives. In Ukraine he did not appreciate the role of Western Ukraine. Western Ukraine on the one hand provides the drive for a nation-building effort, but on the other hand intermediary groups mediate this drive. Such mediation spares the Russian-speakers from abrasive attitudes such as they encounter in Estonia. Even though the boundaries between Western Ukrainians and Russians may seem as strong as those between Russians and Estonians, the boundaries between the various Ukrainian groups in actual contact are fluid. Therefore, what might be termed creeping assimilation is taking place in Ukraine, which has some empirical basis in demographic studies. I find Laitin's book (1998) a rich source for both theoretical insight and empirical information. Nevertheless, I am going to challenge the validity of some of his principal conclusions. Validity of a theory based on certain data is nothing else than lack of alternative explanations of the data that seem at least as likely as the theory

This paper discusses correlations between certain genetic characterestics of the human populations and their aggregate levels of tolerance and happiness. We argue that a major cause of the systematic clustering of genetic characteristics may be climatic conditions linked with relatively high or low levels of parasite. This may lead certain populations to develop gene pools linked with different levels of avoidance of strangers, which helped shape different cultures, both of which eventually helped shape economic development. Still more recently, this combination of distinctive cultural and economic and perhaps genetic factors has led some societies to more readily adopt gender equality and high levels of social tolerance, than others. More tolerant societies tend to be happier because they create a more relaxed environment conducive to happiness.

This paper discusses correlations between certain genetic characterestics of the human populations and their aggregate levels of tolerance and happiness. We argue that a major cause of the systematic clustering of genetic characteristics may be climatic conditions linked with relatively high or low levels of parasite. This may lead certain populations to develop gene pools linked with different levels of avoidance of strangers, which helped shape different cultures, both of which eventually helped shape economic development. Still more recently, this combination of distinctive cultural and economic and perhaps genetic factors has led some societies to more readily adopt gender equality and high levels of social tolerance, than others. More tolerant societies tend to be happier because they create a more relaxed environment conducive to happiness.

For Russians in Estonia, the prospect of Estonian independence meant a crucial change in status: from local representatives of an imperial nation to a minority in a small nation-state. We depicted the ethnic environment in which our respondents lived and worked. We then examined their command of the Estonian or Russian language as an important feature characterizing their mutual accommodation. Finally, we examined expressed attitudes by Estonians and Russians toward one another.For both Estonians and Russians, the immediate ethnic environment at work and place of residence had a substantial effect on language proficiency. The Russian-speaking respondents had a much more positive attitude toward close association with members of other nationalities than did Estonians. Most considered interethnic marriage acceptable. Many preferred to live in neighborhoods with Estonians as neighbors. On the whole, Russians were more open-minded and tolerant toward Estonians than Estonians were toward Russians. In ...

Background Many studies have investigated the impact of a wide range of social events on suicide-related behaviour. However, these studies have predominantly examined national events. The aim of this study is to provide a statistical evaluation of the relationship between mass gatherings in some relatively small urban sub-populations and the general suicide rates of a major city. Methods The data were gathered in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk, with a population of 1 million people, in 2005–2010. Suicide attempts, suicides, and the total amount of suicide-related behaviours were registered daily for each sex. Bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis, including negative binomial regression, were applied to assess the risk of suicide-related behaviour in the city’s general population for 7 days before and after 427 mass gatherings, such as concerts, football games, and non-regular mass events organized by the Orthodox Church and new religious movements. Results The bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses found significant changes in some suicide-related behaviour rates in the city’s population after certain kinds of mass gatherings. In particular, we observed an increased relative risk (RR) of male suicide-related behaviour after a home defeat of the local football team (RR = 1.32, p = 0.047; regression coefficient beta = 0.371, p = 0.002), and an increased risk of male suicides (RR = 1.29, p = 0.006; beta =0.255, p = 0.002), male suicide-related behaviour (RR = 1.25, p = 0.019; beta =0.251, p