Conservatives are Happier than Liberals

[SuBe]

Why Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals

Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By Jeanna Bryner


Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found.
Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.
The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance.



In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.
If your beliefs don't justify gaps in status, you could be left frustrated and disheartened, according to the researchers, Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University. They conducted both a U.S.-centric survey and a more internationally focused one to arrive at the findings.
"Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives," the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science, "apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light."
The results support and further explain a Pew Research Center survey from 2006, in which 47 percent of conservative Republicans in the U.S. described themselves as "very happy," while only 28 percent of liberal Democrats indicated such cheer.
The same rationalizing phenomena could apply to personal situations as well.
"There is no reason to think that the effects we have identified here are unique to economic forms of inequality," the researchers write. "Research suggests that highly egalitarian women are less happy in their marriages compared with their more traditional counterparts, apparently because they are more troubled by disparities in domestic labor."
The current study was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Copyright © 2008 Imaginova Corp.

Pretty Interesting.

 

[Excel]

What about those in the middle??

 

[SuBe]

They are just "Meh".

 

[rdh007]

I would think so. "Rationalizing" or as we in the real world call it, "Not Caring About" the problems we have and have created would be a wonderful way to live.

 

[Superhobo]

 

[Marx]

When your party has pretty much run the country unchecked for the last seven years, yeah, I would imagine you would be happier than your left-leaning counterparts.

 

[Franklin Richards]

That's like saying "Liberals are smarter than Conservatives."

 

[Darkdd]

Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Handsome Rob]

I would think so. "Rationalizing" or as we in the real world call it, "Not Caring About" the problems we have and have created would be a wonderful way to live.

There's a difference between being happy while still caring about the problems of the world and allowing oneself to be weighed down by those same problems, especially when you can't effectively solve them. It's called maturity.

 

[Handsome Rob]

When your party has pretty much run the country unchecked for the last seven years, yeah, I would imagine you would be happier than your left-leaning counterparts.

Actually, I wonder if they considered that in their study. It's definitely a potential control issue.

 

[rdh007]

There's a difference between being happy while still caring about the problems of the world and allowing oneself to be weighed down by those same problems, especially when you can't effectively solve them. It's called maturity.

^

 

[The Senator]

I guess it's easier to be happy when you don't acknowledge all the people you've helped get killed in the past five years and all the people you've helped oppress over an even longer time period

 

[Handsome Rob]

^

Nah . . . it's just what real grown-ups realize. Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% of how you choose to deal with it. We can both help the poor, but if you want to waste your time wringing your hands over the "injustice" in the world, go ahead. I've decided that there are better and more joyful things to focus on.

 

[Handsome Rob]

I guess it's easier to be happy when you don't acknowledge all the people you've helped get killed in the past five years and all the people you've helped oppress over an even longer time period

More generalities. I could paint with the same broad brush and say that you're less happy because of unacknowledged guilt over the millions of unborn babies your policies have allowed to be slaughtered and of the problems you've created in the inner cities by keeping minorities on the "government plantation."

But, I think we'd both be wrong.

 

[The Senator]

More generalities. I could paint with the same broad brush and say that you're less happy because of unacknowledged guilt over the millions of unborn babies your policies have allowed to be slaughtered and of the problems you've created in the inner cities by keeping minorities on the "government plantation."

But, I think we'd both be wrong.

Well it was designed to be a jestful one-liner, but if we want to get into more broad brush strokes, we certainly can...

 

[The Senator]

Nah . . . it's just what real grown-ups realize. Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% of how you choose to deal with it. We can both help the poor, but if you want to waste your time wringing your hands over the "injustice" in the world, go ahead. I've decided that there are better and more joyful things to focus on.

Again, it's easier for people like you because you probably haven't been on the receiving ends of many of these injustices.

 

[Handsome Rob]

Well it was designed to be a jestful one-liner, but if we want to get into more broad brush strokes, we certainly can...

You need to add a or t: or something like that on the end. I thought you were being serious. My internet "read" is poor, at best.

 

[SuperT]

Well of course conservatives are happier then libs right now. They've head their big conservative leader in power for the past eight freakin years.

That's like a really "duh" statement.

 

[The Senator]

You need to add a or t: or something like that on the end. I thought you were being serious. My internet "read" is poor, at best.

Ah, well, it's no problem. I usually don't speak in generalizations like most people do and I'm usually quick to correct myself if it appears that way. I usually type through my posts so fast I forget to add a 'winking' smiley face of some sort.

 

[SentinelMind]

LOL...I swear I literally came to superherohype today with the ingrained in my mind objective of posting this EXACT thread topic....to rub it in the face of the liberals. You stole my dream SuBe!!!!!


I guess I'll have to settle with this....Republicans have happier SEX LIVES than Democrats......

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/News/story?id=180291




But yeah, the overall gist of SuBe's posted article makes sense. Liberals are always worryied about changing the world, they tend to lack an understanding how the world works, how economies work...and lack basic understanding of human nature. They then get discouraged when their policies produce undesirable results or their policies don't even get implemented. They also worry about making everything equal when they don't realize that certain things aren't equal FOR A REASON.....and its better to have consistency, stability where you put the effort in changing your life is better than relying on government to solve all your problems.

I read a lot of books by Thomas Sowell (Vision of the Anointed which puts the ultimate smackdown on liberal political ideology)...it helped cement my outlook on life and put lot of my past experiences dealing with money, finance, liberal friends, conservative friends in perspective and it makes intrinsic and logical sense. I've found myself much happier moving more center right in lot of issues then when I was more left-of-center or liberal on wide range of issues.

 

[Matt]

To an extent, I agree with Handsome Rob. Liberals do tend to be more...I dunno, empathetic than conservatives...almost empathetic to a fault. It is great to care, and be able to see a problems, but you can't always act like the weight of the world is on your shoulders either, and I do find that liberals tend to do that.

 

[Handsome Rob]

Again, it's easier for people like you because you probably haven't been on the receiving ends of many of these injustices.

I misread.

 

[Marx]

Actually, I wonder if they considered that in their study. It's definitely a potential control issue.

I wonder...

Well of course conservatives are happier then libs right now. They've head their big conservative leader in power for the past eight freakin years.

That's like a really "duh" statement.

That was my reaction. It's the same thing as saying that all of the Republicans were largely miserable during the 90's.

I wonder why...hmm.

 

[SentinelMind]

Well of course conservatives are happier then libs right now. They've head their big conservative leader in power for the past eight freakin years.

That's like a really "duh" statement.

Nope,...conservatives are happier than liberals even when a Democrat is in White House....

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/conservatives-are-happier-than-liberals-discuss/

I find it intriguing liberals define happiness by the agenda and occupation of a federal government...

 

[Marx]

Nope,...conservatives are happier than liberals even when a Democrat is in White House....

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/conservatives-are-happier-than-liberals-discuss/

I find it intriguing liberals define happiness by the agenda and occupation of a federal government...

If that is true, I could go as far to say that it's because Conservatives are really only concerned with themselves and no one else.