Does what state you live in determine your state of mind? How happy we are is heavily influenced by geographical factors, according to psychologists at the University of Leicester in Britain, “who’ve recently produced the world’s first map of happiness,” as today’s CS Monitor reports:

Using data from the emerging science of happiness, they created a color-coded atlas of bliss, a topography of the human spirit, from Algeria to Zimbabwe. It’s not climate or topography or some mysterious “energy” that is at work here, but national culture. Some cultures are simply better at producing happy citizens than others.

The researchers found that one prerequisite for happiness is “trust of others.” Uh-oh. By that measure, most Americans are losing ground. According to the Monitor, “In 1960, 58 percent of Americans felt most people could be trusted. By the 1990s, only 35 percent held that view. Indeed, given our economic and military muscle, the US occupies a modest spot on the atlas of bliss. We are not as happy as we are wealthy.” Politicians have been playing the fear card for years now in order to scare up votes. Beware of gays seeking to exhange vows! Watch out for Mexicans who want to pick our strawberries and scrub our toilets! And don’t forget about the Islamo-fascists who hate our freedom!No wonder Obama the optimist is riding high despite the Clinton camp’s effort to portray him as a risky, unknown quantity. We’re sick to death of being scared to death. Remember, as FDR said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”oh, and politicians who try to scare you into voting for them.