VILNIUS, Lithuania DS - A “happiness barometer” has been installed in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
The capital’s mayor has approved the installation as he believes it is a “great tool for politicians” to measure the effect of their decisions, according to Reuters.
The big screen will measure the mood of citizens in real-time by showing a value between 1 (worst) and 10 (best) that reflects votes submitted from mobile phones and computers.
Mayor Arturas Zuokas explained: “This barometer is a great tool for politicians. If we take a decision and see a sharp fall in the mood of the city, then we know we have done something horribly wrong. The barometer has been hovering between 6 and 7 so far this week. In a 2011 poll of global happiness by WIN Association, Lithuania was found to be one of the unhappiest countries in the world.
It only polled ahead of Serbia, Palestine, Egypt and Romania and was one of the countries hit most hard by recent financial crises.