Watching Eurovision could make you feel more satisfied about life, new study finds
The Eurovision Song Contest has been linked to increased life satisfaction
A new study has suggested that watching the Eurovision Song Contest could make you happier.
The annual competition takes place tonight and researchers at Imperial College London discovered that people were more likely to be satisfied with their life if their country was doing well in the contest, the Independent reports.
Around 160,000 participants across 33 European countries completed a questionnaire in which they were asked how satisfied they felt about their lives. Their answers were then compared to how well their countries were doing in the competition or if they were even in it at all.
The data, gathered between 2009 and 2015, found that people had a 4% high chance of feeling satisfied with their lives for every ten places their country climbs on the Eurovision final scoreboard.
In addition, people had a 13% higher chance of feeling satisfied with their lives if their country competed compared to those that didn’t compete. However, winning the competition wasn’t associated with increased satisfaction.
Study author Dr Filippos Flippidis said: “This finding emerged from a jokey conversation in our department. Our ‘day job’ involves investigating the effect of public policies, environmental factors and economic conditions on people’s lifestyle and health.
“Our department employs people from lots of different countries and around the time of the Eurovision Song Contest we were chatting about whether the competition could also affect a country’s national well-being.”
She added: “We looked into it and were surprised to see there may be a link.”
The Eurovision Song Contest final airs tonight.