When it comes to "emotionless societies," Singapore takes the cake. This according to Gallup, which has polled residents in 150 countries since 2009 in a quest to gauge how emotional each country is. It went about doing so by asking a series of yes-and-no questions designed to suss out whether a person had experienced positive or negative emotions (sample: "Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?"). More "yes" answers translated into a more emotional country. In the case of Singapore, only 36% reported feeling emotions of any kind. The world leader in feeling emotions? The Philippines, which had a 60% emotional rating.
The Washington Post analyzed the data by creating a color-coded map of the results, with Max Fisher calling the results "as fascinating as they are indecipherable." Among his conclusions:
- Post-Soviet countries are far from emotional: Aside from Singapore, Madagascar, and Nepal, the top 10 least emotional countries was comprised of ex-Soviet Union countries.
- On the flipside, the Americas dominate: The only countries in the top 15 most emotional countries not from North or South America are the Philippines, Oman, and Bahrain.
- There are odd anomalies: Haiti is far more emotionless than its neighbors; the reverse is true for Angola.
Gallup also looked at the positive/negative breakdown: Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela lead in positive emotions, while Iraq, Bahrain, and the Palestinian Territories were at the bottom of the list. (More
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