True. I guess my problem was it didn't mention a lot of details about the study, and how much the recession might have been influencing the results. But they did mention the possible effect of the recession, so I suppose that was baseless.
I'm actually thinking this may have more to do with the way the countries politics works. It seems like the countries with more in the way of smear campaigns (I know the US, UK and japan among others are all pretty bad at declaring the other side(s) evil) are ranked lower than they may have otherwise been. So you could make the argument that politicians decrease patriotism/political unity and should all be exiled to france as enemies of the state.