Measuring emotional IQ?

We have heard and read the World Happiness Report. But did you know there is also a Global Emotions Report?

In 2018, US-based analytics company Gallup asked 151,000 people in 143 countries a series of questions about how they'd felt the day before. Were they angry or sad? Did they smile or laugh? Did they learn something new? The report is about how people reflect on their own lives -- and the outcome is quite different.

Paraguay, the little South American country ranked highest worldwide for Positive Experiences, and has held this position since 2015. The other most positive countries, in order, were Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Indonesia, Honduras, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia.

Gallup report says, “As they do year after year, Latin American countries dominated the list of countries in 2018 where adults reported feeling a lot of positive emotions each day. The high percentages reporting positive experiences in Latin America at least partly reflect the cultural tendency in the region to focus on life's positives."

Five of Gallup's questions were about positive experiences - experienced a lot of enjoyment, felt well-rested, smiled or laughed a lot and felt treated with respect.  Five questions pertaining to negative experiences were physical pain, worry, sadness, stress and anger.

The Central African country of Chad, which became an oil-producing nation in 2003 but is currently troubled by political instability and violence, topped the Negative Experience Index for the first time.