Poll shows Turks are unhappy, angry and sad

Turkey is the second worst country after Afghanistan when it comes to smiling or laughing, a Gallup survey found, as part of a global research to measure global emotions. 

63 percent of Turkish people replied “No” when asked “Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?” whereas 90 percent of the people from Honduras, Indonesia and Panama said they did have the giggles plentiful. 

Negative emotions were on the rise globally in 2021 and reached a new record in the history of Gallup’s tracking, said Jon Clifton, Gallup’s CEO. But Turkey was among the worst countries in many categories. It ranked third in “Lowest Positive Experiences Worldwide” category and sixth in the highest countries with negative experiences list. 

The poll also showed the fury of the Turks where the country ranked the second with 48 percent of the pollsters saying they experienced anger the previous day. 

Apart from “worry” Turkey was among the top five in all negative emotions: 49 percent of the Turks (3rd in the world) experienced sadness, 64 percent (3rd in the world) experienced stress, 43 percent experienced worry.

On the other hand, the country performed among the worst regarding positive emotions. 33 percent of the Turks enjoyed themselves (bottom 3rd), 45 percent felt well rested (bottom 4th) 18 percent (bottom 2nd) learned or did something interesting the previous day of the survey.

"The primary cause of our negative mood and anger is economy. The perception of injustice in the society leads to anger” said Psychiatrist Hakan Turkcapar, commenting on the Gallup Poll’s results about Turkey.