There was some interesting chatter in a recent thread about the correlation between political ideology and reported happiness. The observation that politically conservative people report higher levels of happiness seems to be a persistent fact across numerous studies.
Like a lot of people here (I suspect) my instincts are that this can’t possibly be “real”, and as a more liberal person I definitely don’t want it to be real. Conservatives certainly seem angry, at least when they talk about politics, and it’s hard to reconcile that with happiness. Happy people shouldn’t be angry all the time.
@pvn had some good comments in the other thread, kind of getting at the tautology that happiness is pretty subjective so how am I to tell someone else their happiness isn’t real? Fine, I accept that to some degree. But is “happiness” really unknowable? I’m not so sure.
I found the Greater Good institute at Berkley and they seem dedicated to studying happiness scientifically. There’s lots of very interesting stuff there, and I even found an article that touches on the politics of happiness.
I think the question of happiness is pretty interesting, and it’s probably more complex than either me or @pvn thought on first examination. There’s good evidence that happiness correlates to spirituality, so I think that the religiousness of conservatives probably does contribute to “real” happiness. Happiness also correlates well to finding “meaning” in life which is kind of related to spirituality. Sadly, it is possible that genuine commitment to the cause of white supremacy creates genuine feelings of community and purpose, resulting in genuine happiness.
It has also been suggested that inequality is a major source of unhappiness, and that because conservatives believe that inequality is Actually Good their happiness is less damaged by the rising inequality in the world.
Anyway, it’s interesting stuff all around. I think there are probably some benefits to people in the forum in the Berkley institute’s suggestions on practices for growing your own personal happiness. It seems like to some degree we are cursed with liberalism and self awareness that could actually impair our happiness, so I guess we have to work harder than the deplorable dipshits if we want to be happy.
According to US polls, republicans are significantly more likely than Dems to agree that democracy is under attack. Not sure WAAF is predominately a left wing phenomenon. Also, the trend dates back to before WAAF took off circa 2016.
i read this thing a long time ago about the reason nordic countries report such high happiness levels is because they don’t really have a word for happy, and the closest word to happy means like, “not so horrible for the moment”. so my theory with this is conservatives don’t understand “happiness” to be the same thing we understand it to be. they think it means shooting a gun or something
This is actually one of the drivers of the conservative reporting higher levels of happiness. They rationalize things like inequality, police brutality, etc. as Actually Good because they invent reasons (rich people deserve to rewarded for their hard work, crime is out of control and only the police can save us) to justify them.
The relationship between money and happiness is complex. There are well know studies that show that happiness increases with income up to a point then levels off, this was popular in the media a few years back. I think the really interesting insight is that your attitude toward money is as powerful an indicator of happiness as your amount of money. When people tie their self worth to money, then they are less happy, even when they have a lot.
I think this is one of the things that explains the “poverty paradox”, how can these groups of poor people report high levels of happiness? Well, they are good at the stuff that really drives happiness like developing and cultivating relationships, feeling and expressing gratitude, and helping others.
This is pretty close. By and large, material conditions are a relatively small contributor to happiness. You become acclimated to anything. (Really think about the talking point that no one had a refrigerator before 1900!). Happiness is driven by a connection to a community and a sense of meaning and purpose to one’s life. Historically, those have been delivered by religious and patriotic myths. Those are in the late stages of demolition (because they’re patently false), but the destruction is more advanced among the left. Moreover, the replacement ideology tends to catastrophize and pretty much tell people that the only morally proper stance is unhappiness and desperation.
It’s a shame the Serenity Prayer is so cringe, because there’s an astonishing amount of wisdom packed in there.
Conservatives seem happier to me, they do get angerier when they talk about politics and the plight of the white man but most of their time is spent doing stuff they enjoy without a care. OTOH, liberals are slightly calmer about politics but their ideology affects all aspects of their lives, makes them nervous nellies, worrisome worriers, etc. Is it okay for me to eat this meat, drive this car, buy from this evil corporation, make X amount more than my employees, etc? Our ideology says No, but then we rationalize doing most of it anyway.
That is actually a big thing that makes conservatives mad imo, “I’m just trying to do X and you are trying to make me feel guilty about it. Stop, don’t want to hear it!”
Just because conservatives pervert an idea doesn’t invalidate the idea. We should base our views on the relationship between wealth and money by looking at the best available data and scientific reasoning, not by reactively opposing something that conservatives say.
I consider myself pretty damn happy these days. Took a while to get here and I think my end point (at least I think it’s my end point but of course I thought that many times previously) is essentially the same as US conservatives but approached from the other direction. We share a complete lack of hope for the future and the knowledge that nothing we personally do matters in the slightest in regards to the wider trends of the world. There’s no God and (if you’re white and well off but not too rich) no one cares about anything you do good or bad. That is a very liberating knowledge to posses. I used to stress about how my actions affected the world I used to think I mattered, that my beliefs or political motivations could make some difference in the world. Obviously that is complete copium. The human race (and possibly all life on earth) is donezo within a few decades. We’re over the cliff edge and in that Wiley coyote moment just before we drop. You can spend your days running in air trying to get back to the cliff or you can accept your fate and enjoy the fall. I focus on 2 things, personal pleasure in the moment and long term happiness through the bonsai like cultivation of relationships. Life is just the Sims, and you’re trying to get as many bars as green as possible at all times. That’s what non Q type conservatives are doing except they don’t get that the pleasure of relationships is in the hard work of maintenance, pruning a tiny leaf that won’t pay off for years to come, so they just focus on number 1. But at least that’s better than liberals whose focus seems entirely on things that they can’t control.
This should work and is consistent with research findings. Practicing being “present” in the moment and focusing on relationships is known to trigger sustained subjective well being.
Conservatives are angry but it’s largely cosplay. They don’t really care that much about abortion or bathrooms or whatever the moral panic of the day is. Why should they, it doesn’t actually affect them. Their talking points regarding the threat of immigrants or taxes are abstract and not connected to reality. It’s just a game, useful for triggering the libs, and an excuse to wear their red hats and drive around honking the horn on their F150s.
Liberals, as presumably people that actually care about the world, are in a state of perpetual indignation. Everything is bad and you should feel bad. The notion that the conservative message thrives off of fear is doubly or triply true of the left. We’re scared about climate change, war, covid, white supremacy, hospital bills, the end of democracy, and nfts. As the group that most wants change it is also the one that is most tilted by stagnation. The outrage is so strong that often the people we hate the most are the ones closest but not quite equivalent to us ideologically.
Is there a single modern left voice that offers a positive uplifting message? Obama is the last one I can remember. All of the Steven Pinker “things are actually good” types have moved into the center-right space, and the left saves some of their more blistering attacks for them.
The feeling of being a part of something bigger than the individual is a known contributor to higher happiness. Ironically, their comingling in groups with other people to assert their shared appreciated of their rugged individualism is a form of psychological/social collectivism that makes them happier. As you point out, the political left’s tendency to eat their own and attack people for lack of purity is likely a contributor to unhappiness. We can’t feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves if we look down our noses at all of our allies.
I think anybody with a real grasp of the reality of what’s going on in the world is going to find it difficult to be happy. And since most conservatives are batshit fucking crazy and completely detached from reality, it’s naturally easier for them to find happiness.
Well-off conservatives have a self-reinforcing belief that American society is essentially fair and just. This is extremely important to them because it means that they got rich entirely due to the fact that they are fucking awesome. Furthermore, they are much better than the dirty poors, who are all poor because they are morally/intellectually inferior and DEFINITELY not due to luck or systemic biases.
It’s all obviously a load of shit, and directly leads to much of the more odious parts of conservative ideology, but if you really believe it, I can see how that would make you happier.
But the science says this isn’t true, people can increase their personal level of happiness by actively cultivating certain feelings (like gratitude) with deliberate practices. Acknowledging the good in the world doesn’t have to come at the expense of being ignorant about all the bad in the world.
Ok, how many people have time for that? Or even know that it’s possible? I’m just saying it’s easier to be happy when you’re detached from reality. Not that it’s impossible to be happy when you’re not.
Most people have time for it but most people don’t know about it. Post Reagan American culture, which has effectively become much of Western culture, doesn’t teach people truthful things about what creates happiness. Consumerism doesn’t really work as a way to be happy, it’s more akin to drug use than sustained well being. But that’s what most people associate with happiness. It’s generally counterproductive though, there’s always more consumer product to pursue and it doesn’t naturally cultivate gratitude to always be focused on buying stuff.
Generally agree with your points but FYI the researchers that work on happiness from a data/science angle are well aware of this. I’ve only just started to dive into the research but this has come up a couple of times in articles or videos I’ve seen and they acknowledge the limits of correlations.
Along these lines I am definitely finding it more interesting to learn about their work on “if you do X then you become happier” than I am about the cross sectional stuff comparing Group A to Group B.