Good news: Our pessimism about other people doesn't line up with reality
A new study shows that people are a lot more honest and kind than we think.

Lost wallet experiments show people are more benevolent than we believe.
In the age of 24/7 news cycles and social media algorithms, it's easy to become cynical about humanity. Sensational videos of bad behavior catch people's attention and get pushed into our feeds, negative headlines reinforce negative feelings, and the cycle leads people to the conclusion that people in general are more selfish and dishonest than helpful and kind.
But is that actually true? According to the 2025 World Happiness Report, it's not. In fact, in reality, humans are far kinder than we think we are.
People are more likely to return a wallet if it has money in it.Photo credit: Canva
Researchers use a simple wallet experiment to test benevolence levels in a given area. If someone finds a dropped wallet, will they turn it in or will they keep it? The perception most people have is that only a small percentage of people will return a lost wallet, but the actual data negates that notion. In fact, overall, people are twice as likely to return a lost wallet than people believe. And perhaps even more interestingly, people were more likely to turn in the wallet if it had money in it than it if didn't.
And this result isn't new. Wallet tests conducted over the years have come to the same conclusion.
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"Collectively, these data on expected and actual wallet return show that people are far too pessimistic about the benevolence of others," the report states. In other words, people are much better people than we think.
Interestingly, our perception of people's benevolence is strongly linked to our happiness. The most social trust we have—believing that people will generally do the decent or honorable thing—the higher our happiness level. Ironically, we could all be a happier if we knew we could trust people more, but it's just our skewed perception of people that's getting in the way. "People may be made needlessly unhappy by their unwarranted pessimism," the report states.
And our beliefs about others doesn't have a small impact. The report says "believing that others would return a wallet predicts a larger boost to life satisfaction than a doubling of income." The positive effect of believing your wallet will be returned is also higher than the expected negative effect that unemployment, mental health issues, or violent crime would have on your life satisfaction.
The good news is that we don't have to try to drum up feigned positivity about humanity in order to increase our social trust. We simply have to look at the data that demonstrates we actually can trust people more than we think we can and internalize it. Reality itself is the antidote to pessimism about humanity. Isn't that wonderful?
The World Happiness Report has a lot to say about people-to-people interactions and relationships, as research shows that social bonds are key to our wellbeing. There are several elements that can impact people's happiness—how much money we have, how healthy we feel, whether we feel a sense of purpose, etc.—but our feelings about and experiences with others is a big piece of the puzzle.
"This year’s report pushes us to look beyond traditional determinants like health and wealth. It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of wellbeing than expected," said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, economics professor, director of Oxfort's Wellbeing Research Centre, and an editor of the World Happiness Report. "In this era of social isolation and political polarisation we need to find ways to bring people around the table again — doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing."
So which countries are the happiest? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Finland topped the list for the 8th year in a row. Despite its cold weather much of the year and it's lack of sunlight in the winter, the Finnish way of life appears to lead to higher levels of happiness than other places. In fact, the Nordic countries in general seem to have a bead on happiness, since Denmark, Iceland and Sweden rounded out the top four spots.
The United States landed at the #24 spot, right behind the United Kingdom at #23, a slip in the rankings for both countries. Here's the list of the top 25 happiest countries:
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
11. Australia
12. New Zealand
13. Switzerland
14. Belgium
15. Ireland
16. Lithuania
17. Austria
18. Canada
19. Slovenia
20. Czechia
21. United Arab Emirates
22. Germany
23. United Kingdom
24. United States
25. Belize
Wherever your country falls on the happiness rankings, focusing more on social connections and a positive outlook on humanity may help give your own personal happiness a boost.