Social Capital and the Happiness of Nations: The Importance of Trust and Networks for Life Satisfaction in a Cross-National Perspective

Why are people in some countries much more satisfied with their lives than people in others? In fact, the national mean life satisfaction scores of 72 countries in this study range from 3.7 to 8.5 on a 10 point scale. This book examines the importance of social capital for societal well—being with highly interesting results. If people in a rich nation increased their civic engagements from one to three memberships on average, the life satisfaction would rise by the same amount as from an in...