Casey Johnston reports that researchers have used Google search analytics to see if there’s a difference between the types of things people from rich and poor countries search for, believing that it might reveal something about their mindset. The researchers came up with a measure called the “future orientation index” highlights include:

• People from countries with higher GDPs are more likely to enter search terms related to the upcoming year.
• People from countries with lower GDPs are more likely to enter search terms related to the year that went past.
• This suggests that countries that have people that have a future oriented mindset tend to do economically better than those who don’t.
• The United States is an outlier – it has a high GDP but a low score on the future orientation index.
• According to the measure Canada, the United States and Japan have the brightest futures ahead of them.

To read about the methodology of the study, what the index tells us about Italy and Russia, and some criticisms of the study click here.

Source: Arstechnica