I know that this is SCIENCE, and we all know how problematic science can be when faced with real issues of opinion, emotion, ignorance and the ever popular “I read it in a really big book.” None the less check out this research snippet from the 60 Second Psych website.
Conservatives are happier than liberals. This according to a 2006 Pew Research Center survey cited in a paper published this month in Psychological Science.
But New York University researchers set out to isolate the reasons why right-wingers would have greater subjective well-being than left-wingers.
They collected data from nearly 1,200 people from the 2000 American National Election Study and found that above the effects of gender, marital status, income, religion and age, the reason for this happiness disparity can be distilled to the separate ideologies of liberals and conservatives.
The authors argue that a conservative belief acts as a psychological buffer in a world of increasing inequality. The idea is that conservatives tend to rationalize inequality as the result of a fair process in a meritocracy, whereas liberals tend to see inequality as inherently unjust.
Analyses with data from 9,000 people across 10 countries uncovered the pattern that, not only do right-wingers report greater life satisfaction across cultures, but the gap widens in those countries where quality of life is low.
Finally, the authors looked at U.S. data spanning the past 30 years, and found that increasing economic inequality is associated with the decrease in the nation’s overall happiness. But noted they found that liberals’ self-reported happiness decreased more steeply than that of conservatives.
- Christie Nicholson
When I read this one I signed up to knock a few hundred additional doors for Dems this fall.
b
cross posted at www.GettingAround.org
Yes, ignorance is (conservative) bliss, to coin a cliche. In my experience, however, any superficial "happiness" a conservative feels doesn't run very deep. In fact, if you scratch the surface, you'll often find a lifetime supply of hatred, fear, rage and loathing.
If you have the stomach for it, you can listen to the sound of conservative "happiness" by tuning in to conservative talk radio. If you didn't know it was the sound of "happiness" you were hearing, you just might mistake it for something else.
bliss indeed
The past 30 years saw a global rise of conservatism, in the U.S. and in the world. I would attribute their happiness more to the fact that they were getting their way.
And an unhealthy dose of narcissism also helps a lot. As inequality rose during the last 30 years, conservatives were more incline to keep the poor out of their mind, except when they wanted to chastise people.
But nothing brings you back into reality than not having enough money. Be ready to see how many conservatives will become liberals in the next few years.