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Slovenes: among the most upbeat people in the world? (source)
According to a recent study conducted at Bradley University
in Peoria, Illinois, Slovenes have a lot of self-esteem. Researchers did
surveys in 53 countries, asking 17.000 people how much they
agreed with statements like: "I take a positive attitude toward myself"
or "I want to shoot myself in the face with a bazooka."
Slovenia
finished in 12th place overall. That’s quite surprising, and certainly doesn’t jibe with the country’s sky-high suicide rates. When it comes to killing yourself, Slovenia is in the global top ten. And yet, apparently, they’re confident about it.
I won’t spoil the surprise of what country has the most
self-esteem. (Hint: You’d never guess it in 190 guesses.) And there are
also plenty of other surprises, such as the fact that Switzerland is so
close to the bottom, or that Italy and Canada didn’t score well. I’ll
leave the rest to you.
The results are here: Who’s No. 1 in Self-Esteem?
(Via the excellent An American in Belgrade)
Comments
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Austria in the Top 10??? I have never met a nation with less self-esteem.
Not to mention Austria’s lack of social courage!
Who funded this research?
Michael, I take it that "You’d never guess it in 190 guesses" was meant jokingly, right?
I mean, of course it’s the Serbs. It takes a lot of balls (cojones, muda, jajca) to declare their worst defeat of 1389 (Battle of Kosovo polje) their greatest victory. Serbs may not have a lot of things, but they do have self-esteem 
And yes, I’m positively shocked taht our little sub-Alp nation scored so high. Thumbs up - not all is lost, it seems
Ah, yet another piece of great blogging.Thank God for Michael Manske.
Ok, now that my payment for the previous comment is through, let me post my real comment (LOL).A low suicide rate does not necessarily mean few suicides: in a number of societies, suicides are reported as accidents, for instance, in order to avoid social stigma and so on…As for the Serbs…
Personally, I see the "Slovene national character" if you will as a curious combination of startling self-confidence and extreme insecurity - a characteristic that translates into every realm of Slovene life, from politics to day-to-day relations. But the Slovenian brand of self-confidence isn’t that of someone who is easygoing and comfortable in his skin, but that of an autist incapable of seeing himself from a distance and with a critical eye. Like bloggers, really…
very good observation, Poulette
Just a thought on what Poulette wrote… Perhaps that’s exactly it… I’m pretty sure that Serbs feel somewhat insecure, also the Israelis, Croatians, etc, etc… Nations who ranked high feel threatend one way or the other. Perhaps high level of self-proclaimed self-esteem is a way of compensating for high level of perceived (or real) insecurity.
pengovsky may be quite right…One way or the other, it only took me only one single guess (too)
What’s interesting to me is that of the top 10 countries on the list, 3 are truly dinky. I don’t include Israel in there because, though small in physical size, the worldwide supporting population is huge. But Serbia, Croatia, and Estonia? That’s almost as amazing as the Czech Republic being ranked so low.On An American in Belgrade, a comment posted by Beogradoholik is dead on about the survey, he says, " the survey is stupid; in Japan showing-off in public is considered as sign of bad behavior… and that is the only real reason why they are at the end of the list." This points out the problem of national traits and their characteristics clashing with the (seemingly) Western-tilted questions.As far as Serbia, Croatia, & Estonia go though, you’d have to assume the shirts are cut extra large to encase the puffy chests. I’m sure the Hrvati are ticked off that their self-esteem is below that of the Serbs. National Self-Esteem Day is probably being planned by some central committee in Zagreb, even as I type.
Michael, from your excellent link site on Global Suicide Rates, the following info is available:3 of the top 10 countries with High Self-Esteem aare also in the top 15 (of 80) countries for suicide rates, with Estonia being #4 of 80.# 80 on the list with Zero suicides per 100,000 is St. Vincent & Grenadines.Curiously, Serbia, #1 in Self-Esteem is nowhere on the Suicide list. This means (tongue in cheek pose) that they may have a negative suicide rate, i.e., killing some of their neighbours qualifies as an erasure of the Serbs killing themselves. Just some bad suicide math here.Seriously, though, if no data is available, these folks must have such high regard of themselves that killing themsleves doesn’t enter the picture. Or, suicide (samoubojstvo) must be a Croatian word and the Serbian language does not have such a word, at least when it applies to themselves.
..hate to be the comment hog here. That info in the previous blog was based on the Global Suicide Rate for Men. Here’s the info for women. Some surprising differences (Sri Lanka has highest suicide rate for women, Lithuania the highest for men), but, yet again, no info shown for Serbia.
Info on Serbia suicide rate is here: http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2005/10/24/srpski/T05102301.shtml It seems that in central Serbia it is between 15 and 17, while around 30 in Vojvodina… Go figure…
What I think is that more people are nationalist the more they pretend
to be self confident… Do not confuse nationalist with chovinist BTW!
BTW, the suicide rate page (nation master dot com… nifty name…) has
this gem to show on the abreviated history of slovenia page
(www.nationmaster.com/country/si)
quote: The Slovene lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria
until 1918 when the Slovenes joined the Serbs and Croats in forming a
new multinational state, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929.
now there’s an abreviated history for you. sure puts the precision of their data under suspicion.
incidentaly, this exact same description can also be found on cia.gov.
my guess is nation master just copy-pasted the info, trusting the
world’s most known secret service to know their foreign countries well
enough. i mean, this being their job and all.
Slovakia in the 10 lowest-ranked, no surprise there.
@Serbia: not surprised at all.
At least Hungary did make its way out of the duel for the pole position (suicide rates). With Romania, if I am not wrong.Huh, we are safer in Budapest now!
Well, being serbian, I feel I can best comment on this. Instead of everyone giving their “educated” guesses as to why it is. I’ll tell you why: it’s because we have nothing to lose anymore. Once you’ve been stripped of everything, punched one too many times, not to mention bombed by a bunch of assholes trying to pull a wag the dog, and now face yet another war, what’s left to worry about. We’re about as messed up as any war would leave anyone. If you don’t love yourself, no one will love you…and yes to serbs that means extreme nationalistic tendencies and pride. And just another analogy in case all of the above means nothing to you. Think of a frighten animal pushed into a corner…the only thing that nature tells them to do is attack, fight back…hell you got nothing to lose. That’s the stem of it..by no means have I examined all aspects of it.