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"Americans are in an unusually good mood — all the time"

"Americans are more upbeat about their days than people in most rich countries, new data from Pew Research Center’s annual Global Attitudes survey suggest."

Pew surveyors typically ask respondents how their day is going as a first question in order to start a conversation and help the respondents become more comfortable with the interviewer. In the process, however, Pew has gathered a massive amount of data on how people in different countries say their day is going...

Pew doesn't speculate on the reasons for these trends, but it's likely they depend both on how respondents feel and how comfortable they are with telling a stranger they're having a bad day. Whatever the reason, Americans come off as atypically cheerful.

"Santa has trouble gearing down for the off-season"

 Cartoon via Andrew Malcolm