And The Happiest Place On Earth Is...

This segment was originally broadcast on Feb. 17, 2008. It was updated on June 12, 2008.

Happiness is that quirky, elusive emotion that the Declaration of Independence maintains we have every right to pursue. And we do pursue it: we are suckers for an endless stream of self-help books that promise a carefree existence for a mere $24.95; and television hucksters of every kind claim they have the key to Nirvana. So the happiness business, at least, is one big smiley face.

As for the rest of us, as correspondent Morley Safer first reported last winter, the main scientific survey of international happiness carried out by Leicester University in England ranks the U.S. a distant 23rd, well behind Canada and Costa Rica. But you'll be pleased to know we beat Iraq and Pakistan.

And the winner, once again, is Denmark.

So it's ironic or something that the unhappiest man in history, or at least literary history, was that Prince of Denmark, Hamlet.

Of course Hamlet had every right to be depressed. After all, his uncle murdered his father and seduced and married his mother and was an all around perfect scoundrel. But Hamlet aside, what makes a Dane so happy and why isn't he wallowing in misery and self-doubt like so many of the rest of us?

That's a question that also intrigued Professor Kaare Christensen at the University of Southern Denmark.

"If you ask people on the street where they think the happiest country in the world, they'll say, you know, like, tropical islands and nice places, like Italy or Spain. Places with nice weather and good food. But in Europe, they're actually the most unhappy people," Dr. Christensen explains.

So Christensen and a team of researchers tried to discover just why Denmark finds itself on top of the happiness heap.

"We made fun of it by suggesting it could be because blondes have more fun. But then we could prove that the Swedes have more blondes than the Danes, and they were not as happy. So we tested different hypotheses," Christensen says.

After careful study, Christensen thinks he isolated the key to Danish anti-depression. "What we basically figured out that although the Danes were very happy with their life, when we looked at their expectations they were pretty modest," he says.

By having low expectations, one is rarely disappointed.

Christensen's study was called "Why Danes Are Smug," and essentially his answer was it's because they're so glum and get happy when things turn out not quite as badly as they expected. "And I was thinking about, What if it was opposite? That Denmark made the worst, number 20, and another country was number one. I'm pretty sure the Danish television would have said, 'Well, number 20's not too bad. You know it's still in the top 25, that's not so bad,'" he says.

History may also play a role in the country's culture of low expectations. If you go to the government's own Web site, it proudly proclaims "the present configuration of the country is the result of 400 years of forced relinquishments of land, surrenders and lost battles."

Could it be that the true secret of happiness is a swift kick in the pants, or a large dose of humiliation?

"Do you think there's some kind of inverse relationship between the more powerful you are, the more unhappy you are? And the weaker you are, the happier you are?" Safer asks.

"Well, at least the pressure's off you, you know?" Christensen says. "And if you're doing pretty well and once in awhile there's outstanding, you're very happy about it. But if your starting point is you should be outstanding, that's not good."

Asked if he thinks Danes like being slightly in the shadows, Christensen says, "I think it's a little bit like in bicycle race. You like to come from behind."

Which is exactly what the underdog Danes did in the 1992 European Soccer Championship; Christensen says it created such a state of euphoria that the country has not been the same since.

But is there more to it? 60 Minutes asked Danish newspaper columnist Sebastian Dorset what he thought about Denmark's number one status.

"If you didn't tell me about the survey I wouldn't believe that Denmark was the happiest place. Because everybody complains all the time," Dorset says.

"But I find it fascinating that you say people complain. But there is a real sense of contentment here," Safer remarks.

"Yeah," Dorset agrees.

Dorset says that contentment may stem from the fact that Denmark is almost totally homogenous, has no large disparities of wealth, and has had very little national turmoil for more than a half century. "We have very little violence. We have very little murders. So people are, feel very safe," he says.

He says people feel secure. "[A] knife stabbing makes the front page every time. Yeah, I don't think that happens in America very often," Dorset says.

Happy as they may be, Dorset says Danes rarely show it. "People are not looking very happy in the street. They don't talk very much," he says.

"So people don't just strike up casual conversations on the train?" Safer asks.

"No. No, never. I think, actually, there's a very highly developed body language. When, if you are stuck on the window seat of a bus, and wants to get out, and there's a person next to you on the aisle seat, then you don't say, 'Excuse me, could I please get off?' You start rattling your bags and make sort of a gesture saying, 'I'm about to get up so please get up so I don't have to talk to you,'" Dorset says.

Asked if it might be shyness, Dorset says, "I don't know, it's considered a right by Danish people not to be talked to."

Danish students can fairly be described as utterly laid-back. Even so, they're surprised to be told they live in "happiness ville."

"When I go abroad, I usually see people look much more happy. For example, in southern Europe. They go about in the streets laughing much more than we do. I think you could say maybe we are more content," one male student tells Safer.

"What's the distinction you make between happiness and contentedness?" Safer asks.

"Well, if you're content you don't have so much to worry about. That's what I think," the student says.

For example: they have no student loans hanging over their heads. All education is free in Denmark, right on through university. And students can take as long as they like to complete their studies.

"And we get paid to go to school actually. Instead of in the U.S. you pay to go to school, we get paid to go to school if we pass our exams," a student explains.

"Americans watching this particularly people your age would be bowled over by the very idea that the government pays you to go to school," Safer remarks.

"Yeah," the student acknowledges.

"I'm being paid right now for not going to school. I'm being paid for parenting," another male student tells Safer. "It's 100 percent paid for by the government for half a year."

Denmark also provides free health care, subsidized child care and elder care, a social safety net spread the length and breadth of the country.

"I mean, we're pretty much free to do whatever we want. We're secure from the day we're born. For a Dane who lives in Denmark," a male tells Safer.

Fish and beer-a-holics they may be, but workaholics they are not: Dr. Christensen says the average work week is 37 hours, and workers get six weeks of vacation.

But in getting all of these wonderful gifts from the government, the Danes do pay a price. Christensen says a middle income person would pay about 50 percent - half - in taxes.

And that is one trade-off most Americans are not willing to make. Americans, according to Harvard Psychology lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar, want it all.

"In America, part of the ethos, part of the American dream, is that more is better and the more is better usually applies to the material realm. And that doesn't pan out. That doesn't work. It doesn't make us happier," he says.

Ben-Shahar teaches a course at Harvard called "Positive Psychology," the science of happiness. He began the class four years ago, and it has become the most popular course on campus, enrolling some 1,400 students. In the U.S., the quest for happiness begins in what's alleged to be the happiest years of our lives.

"There's a lot of unhappiness on college campuses. And it's not just at Harvard. Over 94 percent of college students nationwide are stressed and overwhelmed. And students are paying a very high price for this pressure," Ben-Shahar says.

That pressure is a result of high expectations; wanting it all is a bacterium that stays with us from youth to old age - wanting a bigger house, fancier car, more stuff. And when we get more, there's always someone with even more stuff, who's just as unhappy. Some suggest that the unhappiest zip codes in the country are the wealthiest, like the Upper East Side of New York.

"The number one predictor of well-being is close friendships and close relationships in general, which includes of course, family relationships. Much better predictor of well-being than affluence is," Ben-Shahar says.

Ben-Shahar says Americans could learn a lot about happiness from the Danes. "It is about having realistic expectations. It's about not trying to fit in more than we can handle. We can't handle it all. We can't have it all. But we can have a lot," he says.

"You've lived in the states. You visited the states," Safer asked a man. "Would you live there?"

"It's got a grandness to it that you can never imagine here in Denmark. Because it's on a much larger scale. And the differences are much, much bigger. But I wouldn't want my children to grow up there," the man replied.

"Just describe for me the qualities that a successful person would have in this country," Safer asked.

"Well, in order to see myself as a success I would want to be happy and have a lot of time with my family. I think that's very important to me. And the money is not that important," he replied.

"It is more about the softer values, such as not being stressed, and feeling passionate about what I'm doing. 'Maybe this job is not gonna pay me a lot of money. But I'm gonna love getting up and doing it every day,'" another said.

Asked if one can equate money with happiness, a man told Safer, "No."

"If you have a sufficient amount of money, then I don't think it will make you a lot happier to get really rich. And we're already at a good level here in Denmark. So I don't think we'll be happier if we increase our wealth," another remarked.

But these un-melancholy Danes, as laid back as they are, do not lack ambition. "I think that we have very high hopes. Just like any other people who, we just don't get so disappointed when we don't see them through," a man explained.

Asked what he would advise Americans to do, the man said, "Well, okay. I have an advice. Don't depend too much on the American dream. Yeah. I think you might get disappointed."

Produced By Deirdre Naphin