Danes score higher than other Westerners on life satisfaction, and scientists think they know why. “In a paper appearing in the Dec. 23 issue of the medical journal BMJ, researchers review six likely and unlikely explanations, and conclude that the country’s secret is a culture of low expectations. … Danes continually report lower expectations for the year to come, compared with most other nations. And ‘year after year, they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark,’ the paper concludes.”