Fine at home, worried about the world: 50,000 people in 92 countries describe the optimism gap

After a week of election nights and market alarms, here is a study about the distance between your kitchen table and your news feed.

The survey. About 50,000 people in 92 countries answered ten questions on mental health, covering optimism, self-esteem, positive emotions, engagement and vitality, followed by measures of stress, depression, anxiety and life satisfaction¹. More than 260 researchers took part, led by Kai Ruggeri of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health; the results are published in Social Indicators Research¹.

The finding that travels. Respondents scored highest on relationships, sense of meaning, competence, engagement and self-esteem¹. In other words, they tended to view themselves and their own circumstances positively. At the same time they viewed external factors, such as political and economic stability in their country, negatively, and felt heavily burdened by them, which the authors link to anxiety, stress and burnout¹. Experts call this the “optimism gap”: a good view of one’s own life alongside a dark view of society and the future¹.

The finding that worries. Young people in particular lack basic elements of well-being, especially vitality, emotional stability and resilience¹. “It is now necessary to develop concrete measures to strengthen the mental health of young people,” said Ruggeri¹.

The dull variables. As so often, the ordinary circumstances explain much. Employment and higher income go with better mental health; lower formal education goes with lower well-being; people who live alone score lower than those who live with others¹. One detail for anyone arguing about the office: hybrid workers, mixing home and office, scored higher than those working fully remotely¹.

What it does not say. The survey was conducted mainly online, so it reaches the connected more easily than the isolated, and an association is not a cause¹. It cannot tell you whether the news makes people anxious or anxious people read more news.

For you. If this week left you feeling that everything is going wrong, try the survey’s own split. List what is going wrong out there, then what is going right in here. For most of the 50,000, the second list was longer than they expected¹.