DON’T WORRY -- HAPPINESS ISN’T AN EXACT SCIENCE!

There are several reasons the Personal Prosperiscope isn’t a scientific tool. First of all, the analysis in the research papers we used to build the Personal Prosperiscope is based on statistical averages. On average, people who are very ill will tend to be less happy than people who are very healthy. But each individual is different. There are some individuals who are sick, but this doesn’t seem to impact their overall contentment with their lives -- perhaps you have even known such a person or are one yourself.

Also, because the survey questions are designed to be analysed statistically, they aren’t very precise. We’ll ask you how long your commute is, but not whether you spend your commuting time cycling across the village green or being stuck in traffic. It’s quite possible that some types of long commutes are much more pleasant than others. Again, we’re talking about an average.

Additionally, we combined a number of studies, using a number of different data sets, to build the Personal Prosperiscope. It’s not possible to combine the results from different statistical studies very accurately.

Finally, in a few cases, these findings are based on a survey conducted in one country only. (In the results, the Personal Prosperiscope will display information for each question regarding the number of countries in which people were surveyed.) Different cultures imply different attitudes (something multi-country studies take into account, but single-country studies do not). So if living by the sea makes the Irish a lot happier, it may not have the same implications for people living in Russia or Madagascar -- we simply don’t know. For lack of better information, on these types of questions, the Personal Prosperiscope will just treat you like you were an average Irish person, no matter where you come from or where you live.