The gap between perception (Africa? Are you sure? Isn’t it dangerous?) and perception (Everyone is so happy and helpful and hospitable.) finally can be eroded due to some serious social science effort.  Africa turns out to have lowest levels of happiness, and it is not just a low income thing.  The graphic is hard to read (numbers to the third digit? little tiny black confidence intervals at end of bars? And everyone knows what the Commonwealth of Independent States is, right?)  Source is the World Happiness Report.  A news report is here, with very smiling John Helliwell.