This week we are reading about experiments and qualitative field research. In your research paper for this class, you are using data, which have already been collected and are ready to be used for sta

Comparaison of happiness index between the USA and Yemen

Lam Ho Yung

Oregon State University

PS 300

Introduction

Yemen is being located in the Middle East region it has kept the country from the scourge of civil war for many years. Yemeni have long suffered from the war and even fell into a humanitarian crisis, to date the humanitarian crisis in Yemen remains the worths in the world (UN, OCHA). To collect data from the World Values Survey 2010-2012, that research involving more than 183 countries. The survey will look at do people are less happy due to the frequent civil war in the country that impact the level of happiness. Therefore the results may indicate that people in the US should be observed to be happier compared to the citizens of Yemen who showed some negativity to happiness related questions when interviewed. Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people experience a peaceful life, they tend to be happy in life as compared to people who experience sorrowful or undergone traumatic acts like terrorism. That the citizens of the U.S live happier since the country doesn’t experience frequent wars and, as a result being peaceful, which should directly proportional to the economic performance of the country and the happiness level in the country. Countries in the Middle East have been experiencing frequent terrorist attacks and fights amongst themselves, Yemen being one of the countries in the Middle East it is not an exception either (WHR, 2019).

The reason as to why I chose this topic is the experience of countries in the Middle East experiencing different types of wars in the recent past. While the U.S has been comparably peaceful with only the exception of the 9/11 attack that was aimed at causing fear, havoc, and anxiety to the country. Hence, based on the world’s values survey I want to compare the level of happiness amongst the U.S citizens as opposed to the citizens of Yemen in the Middle East region that is often and currently facing civil war.

War normally has a detrimental effect on the level of social capital and happiness which is inversely proportional to the distance from the area affected by war, (Guriev and Melnikov, 2018). The main aim of this research paper is to compare the impact war has on the level of happiness in a given country. In order to answer the question of the research study on the impact, war has on the level of happiness for citizens of a given country. I used data from a conducted survey of “V10” and “V185” from the world values codebook. Also, the study will answer if war has a positive or negative effect on the level of happiness for the citizens of the affected state. The study will use data from surveys that will be analyzed using the chi-square test and hence results and conclusions are given afterward.

Literature Review

According to research its documented that the effect of war on happiness is normally immense. Statistics indicate that at least 191 million people have faced death as a result of the war in the twentieth century, (Iqbal, 2006: 631). A huge number of people experienced severe injuries and were left disabled and hence their lives were filled with suffering for their entire lives since they depended on others for their survival. Hence such people who have undergone such traumatizing scenarios in their lives have a lower probability of being happy.

Additionally, war affects the level of the economy of the country, cultural heritage, infrastructure in the country is negatively affected since there are no developments. Further, the GDP of the country experiencing wars drops by 2.2% annually compared to any other nation not experiencing wars, (Coupe, 2016). The lives of citizens of the affected country go down and live by extreme suffering trying to make ends meet in order to survive. Consequently, the lives of people whose countries have experienced wars are more likely to be sorrowful sad, and full of struggles as compared to the nations that are peaceful, (Koubi, 2005. P.69).

Wars can be as a result of geographical boundary conflicts among states or clans in the same country. Differences in political interest also result in fights and eventually wars that affect the entire country as in the case for Yemen where political conflicts arose between the government and the armed movement, (Niclas, 2011: p.458). Wars increase the level of anxiety and fear in the population. And hence negative national stress experienced by citizens of the country affects the happiness of its citizens, (Frey, 2011).

According to (Welsch, 2008), wars could result from the following areas, civil wars, terrorism where a particular group is targeted with the aim of creating havoc, and building up fear as to what happened to the US in 2011. Finally, certain events and countries. Wars reduce the economic well-being of people, results in fear, agony for losing loved ones, suffering for those left with injuries, and those whose parents are killed, (Frey, 2018). This reduces the level of happiness amongst the affected and it is difficult for one to regain happiness.

As a result, this research paper is aimed at comparing the impact of war on the happiness index of a country by comparing two states which are the USA, (Sachs, 2017) and Yemen that are on two extreme ends of peace. This paper will compare the happiness index in the US which is known to experience fewer wars and happiness indexes in Yemen which is known to have experienced and still experiencing wars due to political conflicts.

Work cited

https://www.unocha.org/yemen/about-ocha-yemen, Crisis in Yemen, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN.

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/changing-world-happiness/, The Evolution of World Happiness 2005-2018. World Happiness Report (2019).

Semantic Scholar Frey, Bruno S. "Peace, war and happiness: Bruder Klaus as wellbeing facilitator." International Journal of Wellbeing 1.2 (2011).

Frey, B. S. (2018). Happiness and War. In Economics of Happiness (pp. 63-70). Springer, Cham.

Guriev, Sergei, and Nikita Melnikov. "Happiness convergence in transition countries." Journal of Comparative Economics 46.3 (2018): 683-707.

Coupe, T., & Obrizan, M. (2016). The impact of war on happiness: The case of Ukraine. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 132, 228-242.

Berggren, Niclas, and Christian Bjørnskov. "Is the importance of religion in daily life related to social trust? Cross-country and cross-state comparisons." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 80.3 (2011): 459-480.

SACHS, J. D. (2017). Restoring American happiness. World Happiness Report 2017, 178.

Iqbal, Z., & Zorn, C. (2006). Sic Semper Tyrannus? Power, repression, and assassination since the Second World War. The Journal of Politics, 68(3), 489-501.

Koubi, V. (2005). War and economic performance. Journal of Peace Research, 42(1), 67-82.