One Big Thing to Learn from… Denmark
As our election season cranks up, Americans are going to be asked to take a deep look within ourselves to determine what values matter most to us. As we do that, I hope we can also look “without” ourselves, and spend some time thinking about what we can learn about what is most important from people and policies and ideas and traditions that other countries have pioneered. So this piece kicks off a series I’ll be doing from time to time about cool things happening across the world that we can learn something from.
Today: Denmark. Ever since meeting a remarkable group of Danes during a walk in Italy a couple of years ago, I’ve found myself bumping into stories that highlight strange and wonderful elements of Danish culture. And once you start looking, it’s hard not to notice how successful the country has been. Maybe there’s an explanation, I thought.
Strollers outside Copenhagen store (photo Anna Sol)
Imagine you’re walking down the street and you see a baby carriage parked outside a café. Then you notice there is a baby in the carriage, with no parent in sight.
If you’re in New York City, you call it a crime.
If you’re in Denmark you call it normal. And it could happen outside a café, a clothing shop or a grocery store – anywhere parents might need a couple of hands free for a few minutes.
In the US, a parent leaving a stroller outside could be subject to charges of child abuse or neglect: what if someone stole the child?
So how can people possibly be comfortable doing that in Denmark? Well, that takes some ‘splaining.
Some data about the country first. Denmark ranks near the top internationally among countries in per capita income. Depending on the exchange rate at any given time, the average Danish worker makes between USD$60,000-$70,000 per year. Thanks to high employment, a healthy economy and a robust welfare state, the poverty rate is 0.3% (about 1/38th the US rate). Danish companies Maersk (container cranes, transportation), Novo Nordisk and Novozymes (both pharmaceuticals) all have a big international presence, including in my home state of North Carolina.
How does a country with fewer than 6 million people (roughly half the size of North Carolina), with average education levels and almost no natural resources, a country you may know best for its Viking heritage, Nordic noir novels and gray skies, pack such a punch?
It could be as simple as one word: trust.
The Danes really don’t like to brag about themselves. On an individual level, they operate under an unofficial but well-entrenched set of rules called the “Janteloven,” a sort of personal creed that centers on not standing out, and not pretending to be better than anyone else (Rule #1: “You are not to think that you are anything special.”).
Denmark is the only country above 70% in trust (y-axis) and also ranks near the top in per capita income (x-axis). There is a close relationship between trust and per capita GDP. (chart from Our World in Data).
So it’s a little awkward for Danes to acknowledge this fact: they rank #1 among all countries in the world in trust. And it’s not really close.
Some 74% of Danes answered ‘yes’ to this statement in the latest World Bank survey: “Most people can be trusted.” It’s a mutantly high number: other Nordic countries do pretty well, but the global average is about 25%. In the US, 37% of people give that answer; Russia’s at about 23%; India is at 17%; Indonesia and Peru are both under 5%; Zimbabwe comes in last, at 2.1%.
Over the past few days I’ve been reading a book from and corresponding with Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, a professor at Aarhus University, on the origins and implications of the Danish notion of tillid, a deep sense of trust that permeates the society. And I’ve been trying to come to terms with why it matters and how the US could get more of it.
Svendsen suggests a number of possible origins of Danish trust:
· Word-based transactions: In the Viking era and the years immediately following, very few Danes could read or write, and paper was scarce, meaning trading was much more likely to be conducted based on handshakes and trust, not written contracts. A culture grew up that was based more on looking someone in the eye than taking them to court.
· Security: Denmark has historically been relatively insulated from global conflicts (it currently ranks as the second-most peaceful country in the world). And despite what you might conclude from Nordic novels, there’s very little violent crime: murder rates are 1/5 the US level; robbery rates 1/4th as high; rape 1/7th. The Economist ranked Copenhagen “the safest city in the world” in 2021.
Former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen summarized Denmark’s peaceful tendencies this way: “You rarely see a Dane with a knife in one hand without a fork in the other.”
· Informal associations: There’s a long tradition of Danes forming informal clubs and groups and co-ops to pursue shared interests. Danish joke: “When two Danes meet they shake hands; when three Danes meet they form an association.” One outgrowth of all these associations, Svendsen told me in an email, is an abnormally high number of “physical meeting spaces, particularly in voluntary associations.” Working together to accomplish a goal, face to face, requires great communication — and trust.
· Family values: The importance of trust is reinforced in families, in schools and in work settings. The emphasis is so pervasive that studies show immigrants to Denmark are relatively quick to accommodate to Danish norms on trust; other studies show Danes emigrating to other countries are more likely than natives of those countries to pass on trust to their children.
Danish “honor system” roadside stands save money on staffing.
Think about the potential impacts of operating in a more trusting society. Danes save money on security: they don’t have to hire armed guards at schools or outside stores; they police at lower levels; few purchase home security systems. They can leave roadside produce stands unattended, using instead the honor system. When it comes to formal business, they are less likely to get attorneys involved in contracts. They have fewer lawsuits. They hire fewer collection agencies. Svendsen quotes a machine manufacturer explaining why he doesn’t do signed contracts: “If you can talk your way to, well, to a mutual understanding and stick to your word, then that’s it, see? And it keeps us from drawing up paperwork, which only makes for more expense and more hassle, and we’d have to bring in lawyers to actually get around to making something.”
Add up the impact of all the small savings in a trust-based economy, and Svendsen estimates that one quarter of the success of the Danish economy can be traced to trust. Trust reduces friction. Trust is cheaper.
I can almost see your eyes rolling from here, and I happen to have a secret eye-roll-decoding ring. That’s fine, you’re thinking, for a small, insulated, isolated, relatively monochromatic country in northern Europe, but it’ll never work in the US. If we tried that approach to business or social life, we’d just be suckers. Everybody knows you can’t trust the “other” – other people; other businesses. And certainly not the government. In the “real world” there’s always somebody out to get you.
Could be.
But maybe you’re exhausted from distrusting everyone. Maybe you’d like to do your part to start America back on the path to becoming less paranoid, less litigious, slightly more trusting. I think there are a few things we Americans could try that might put us on a path to be marginally more trusting. Here are three tiny steps we might consider:
· Tell politicians: Stop dissing; start fixing: American politicians have spent the past 50 years attacking every institution we have, and it has worked: the latest polling (from Gallup, 2023) shows 32% of us have confidence in the church or organized religion; 27% in the Supreme Court. Public schools, banks and the presidency each get 26%; newspapers 18%; TV news 14%; Congress 8%. Some of that distrust makes sense: every one of those institutions needs work. But every one of them is also essential to a high-functioning society: we can’t afford to just destroy them.
Don’t let politicians get away with only throwing bombs and tearing down. Demand that they actually offer ideas for how we can make institutions less corrupt, more trustworthy.
· Tell the media: Catch people doing good: As a former reporter, I know how easy it is to tell a bad news story; our media needs to commit to telling more good news stories (see this piece). Every day there are gigantic numbers of people across the country showing integrity, doing the right thing. By ignoring those stories and focusing on only bad news, we reinforce the downward spiral of trust: if all we hear is bad news, it’s easy for us to conclude that all institutions are evil; all politicians are corrupt; other people can’t be trusted. Tell your favorite media outlet you want more inspiration and less conspirification. The media has helped to tear down our trust; it can help lead us back. Not surprisingly, Denmark has an example of what that might look like: a publication called (in English) “World’s Best News,” which focuses exclusively on good news stories about progress in solving world challenges.
· Tell ourselves: Take a small trusting chance a day: If our trust infrastructure can be torn down brick by brick, it can be rebuilt the same way. Maybe that means starting a supper club or joining a book club or volunteering at a food bank. Maybe it means looking for an opportunity every day to take a small risk on a friendship that might disappoint you; to ask a stranger for a small favor; to show confidence in an employee who’s sticking a neck out. It could even mean trying a simple business relationship without lawyering up.
Trust can be destroyed over time; Denmark proves it can also be built.
Will those steps get Americans to Dane-worthy levels of trust? Unlikely; they’ve got a 1000-year lead, and, as Danish journalist and radio host Torben Sangild emailed me: “Trust is easier to lose than to build.” On the other hand, since 1979, with intentional efforts, trust levels in Denmark have increased from 49% to 74%: could Americans take steps to at least slow our downward spiral?
If nothing else, making our own personal pivot from jacked-up paranoia to vaguely increased trust, we will experience a better quality of life.
It’s working for Denmark. The country currently ranks #2 globally on the World Happiness Index. And even if the rules of janteloven stop them from saying it out loud, I think they’re quietly hoping to get to #1. Look out Finland!
-Leslie
Special thanks to Danish friends Dr. Morten Ryhl-Svendsen (for his advice and edits) and Anna Sol (for her photo), and to US friend Rev. Dr. Mac Schafer for his additional help with this piece.
Notes:
What happens when a Danish mother goes to New York City: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/26/anette-sorenson-denmark-new-york-baby-left-outside
When asked if baby kidnapping ever happens in Denmark, my friend Morten said yes, then cited a case from 1965. So once every 59 years or so: https://www.bt.dk/krimi/tina-blev-stjaalet-fra-sin-barnevogn-i-1965-laes-hele-fortaellingen-om-det-mystiske-
World Trust Data (a note: I do not take China’s data seriously): https://ourworldindata.org/trust
Trust in Denmark. In 2016 the Ministry of Culture held an official vote for its “official values: trust come in at #1: https://denmark.dk/people-and-culture/trust
Svendsen’s really interesting book on Trust: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/23066/trust
The ‘rules’ of Janteloven: https://youthjournalism.org/first-rule-of-janteloven-youre-not-special/
Copenhagen is the safest city in the world: https://impact.economist.com/projects/safe-cities/
2023 Gallup US institutional confidence survey: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx
US trails other G7 countries in confidence in public institutions: https://news.gallup.com/poll/643598/leader-loser.aspx
World’s Best News (the good news paper): https://worldsbestnews.org/about/
A bit on Torben Sangild:https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torben_Sangild
World Happiness Index (note US ranks #23): https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-younger-the-older-and-those-in-between/#ranking-of-happiness-2021-2023