Political Ideology and Happiness

[poopypants]

I heard about a survey that asked “Are you racist in any way?” and it turns out conservatives are the least racist of them all!

[mosdef]

How would they know? They don’t even see race!

All self reporting is subject to big issues with lack of self awareness. The famous study is the one that shows 90% of people think they’re above average drivers.

A cool thing the happiness researchers look at it secondary indicators, stuff like reporting on specific mood at specific times. Then you can see things like Person X self reports as above average in happiness but reports on having more negative emotions than others.

[hey_you]

I think I’ll pop in to the About Moderation thread and poll those folks about their happiness.

[baddis]

I guess we Finns are asked if we’re content / satisfied with our lives and we’re surprised when we are “happiest country in the world”. Happiness, or ‘onnellisuus’ in Finnish, is a loaded word which is not used lightly and maybe more like euphoric / halcyon in English. So I guess it’s all semantics, health care, right to fuck up and shit.

[ElSapo]

The place to start, in my opinion, is asking “What is happiness?”

Any words we put on it are just concepts, so it is best to look experientially. My own experience tells me that “happiness” is a sense of connection with others.

[skydiver8]

@mosdef

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.

It’s this. The people who have turned into RWNJ’s lately have done so because it gives them a sense of belonging. This feeling of belonging is something they used to get from their chosen career, their workplace, the club, whatever. Along comes the very homogenous right wing and the messaging appeals because it’s all the same and it makes them feel a part of something. Dark things move in to fill that hole when positive options aren’t presented.

The downside of the big tent idea is that while it makes people feel included, it doesn’t make them feel like they actually belong in the tent. We on the left tend to eschew that sense of belong for trying to include everyone, when, ironically, people tend to feel more at home with people who share their ideas and values.

The GOP can easily spout their “values” (or at least pay enough lip service to them to get people to believe that the left doesn’t value them). What are ours?

To someone who is less-engaged and not a very critical thinker (a lot of people) the options available right now make the choice fairly clear:

1. We believe just like you, and if we believe a few other things that you aren’t 100% on board with, we’ll let you into the club and reinforce our shared beliefs because you are one of us. (this of course will make you come around on the other beliefs soon enough)

2. We believe just like you, and if we believe a few other things that you aren’t 100% on board with, we obviously made a mistake and you aren’t welcome here anymore, and we will scream at you until you leave or cower.

I mean, with no more information, number 1 looks much more appealing. Obviously, the actual beliefs make a huge difference to those of us who are well-informed or think more deeply about issue, but to the average person who just continues to go along with how they were raised or whatever, they choose #1 and are happier for it.

That club that reinforces their shared beliefs makes them feel like they belong to something…and the other not so great things just get excused because the need for belonging is SO MUCH STRONGER than almost any other psychological/sociological phenomenon.

[superuberbob]

I don’t think it’s the ideology more than it is your engagement with politics.

I mean you’re following something you can’t control and unless you’re in the 1%, you’re probably pissed about what’s happening.

Better to be more distant from the things you cannot control. Definitely reduced my stress.

[mosdef]

The scientific approach looks at is a bit differently, you define happiness as satisfaction and positive emotions, then examine what creates that happiness. So the sense of connection with others is a driver of happiness, not a definition of happiness, in that framework.

Happiness Definition | What Is Happiness.

[mosdef]

This instinctively makes sense to me, but the charts on US happiness by political affiliation show Dems and independents at the bottom (close to each other) and Republicans markedly higher than both. If political disengagement was the key to happiness, we might expect independents to rank higher than both Dems and Reps.

[mosdef]

So I’m enjoying my new hobby here of reading more about the science of happiness. Big thanks to @pvn for challenging some of my comments about happiness. I’m learning a lot.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from my reading today:

Letting go of wanting to feel happy all the time also encourages less self-consciousness about happiness. This may be helpful because many peak, pleasant experiences, characterized by total absorption in an activity, a phenomenon known as “flow,” are marked by a lack of self-awareness.

This is one of those things that is maybe a bit nonintuitive to your median left leaning person that’s engaged in politics. Certainly for the last decade or two there has been a lot of correlation between the left and the technocratic class. Or at least the technocratic class in the US - people that think the world should be studied and meticulously measured and that governing is having a big set of policy dials and having the smartest people turn the dials gently from left to right to try to optimize outcomes and writing white papers about that stuff - those people are basically 100% Dems and they are active Dems. It’s interesting that that mindset is self defeating when it comes to happiness. If you try to fix your happiness by obsessively measuring it and seeking to maximize it all the time, then you’re just hopping on the train to Neurosis Town.

It seems like the successful pursuit of happiness is more of a purely behavioral activity - focusing on creating the daily habits that are more likely to generate positive emotions drives sustained feelings of wellbeing. It kind of reminds me of people trying to lose weight - meticulous counting of calories consumed and burned almost never works, but improving daily habits like not having snacks in the house or walking to work etc. almost always works.

[mosdef]

True, but this doesn’t align with modern American conservatism. Since the days of Reagan the Republicans have been activists driving the country to the right. The Dems are the party of “nothing will fundamentally change”.

[mosdef]

Yeah, good point. Another way to look at it is that a lot of Rs clearly vote of out fear of change. That’s kind of like voting to keep things the same, although it is the most toxic version of voting for continuity.

[bobman0330]

@skydiver8

The people who have turned into RWNJ’s lately have done so because it gives them a sense of belonging. This feeling of belonging is something they used to get from their chosen career, their workplace, the club, whatever. Along comes the very homogenous right wing and the messaging appeals because it’s all the same and it makes them feel a part of something. Dark things move in to fill that hole when positive options aren’t presented.

This is perfectly put. I disagree a bit with the rest of your post though. Politics is fundamentally incapable of delivering a healthy sense of belonging. People who can’t find a healthy sense of belonging in their real lives can get drawn into political movements that offer them a semblance of community and identity. Those political movements are uniformly awful though, because the best facsimile of an identity that a political movement can provide is basically demonization and hatred of a political outgroup. So the cycle is community decline → disaffected people seeking meaning → political entrepreneurs and other grifters exploiting them with fake communities → politics becoming terrible.

[superuberbob]

@mosdef

This instinctively makes sense to me, but the charts on US happiness by political affiliation show Dems and independents at the bottom (close to each other) and Republicans markedly higher than both. If political disengagement was the key to happiness, we might expect independents to rank higher than both Dems and Reps.

Independent doesn’t mean disengaged from politics. It just means not one of the two parties, right?

If anything, I’d think that Independents would be the most miserable.

[mosdef]

I’m speculating that people who self identify as D or R would in average be more politically engaged than people who self identify as independent.

[Fossilkid93]

@mosdef

So I’m enjoying my new hobby here of reading more about the science of happiness. Big thanks to @pvn for challenging some of my comments about happiness. I’m learning a lot.

Feel free to share more of your findings wrt happiness, I’m enjoying reading them.

@mosdef

It seems like the successful pursuit of happiness is more of a purely behavioral activity - focusing on creating the daily habits that are more likely to generate positive emotions drives sustained feelings of wellbeing. It kind of reminds me of people trying to lose weight - meticulous counting of calories consumed and burned almost never works, but improving daily habits like not having snacks in the house or walking to work etc. almost always works.

You would probably enjoy the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. It discusses this very thing, and yes, your hunch is correct that a lot of people fail that use that method. Normally you can’t just brute force a new habit, i.e. saying I’m gonna count calories starting today.

The best ways are by increasing the barriers to your negative habits and making it easier to follow positive ones, along with several other tips and tricks.

If you plan out a healthy breakfast and put the supplies out before you go to bed, you’re far more likely to follow thru. If you stop buying garbage, such that it’s not even available in a moment when you’re in a hurry or feeling depressed, then you won’t be able to consume garbage. Or donating $5 to charity each time you drink a Coke.

It’s more about becoming a person who eats healthy rather than forcing yourself to exercise or eat well. Each time you eat a piece of fruit, you’re casting a vote towards becoming a healthy person. Eating a cookie is casting a vote against.

[skydiver8]

@bobman0330

This is perfectly put. I disagree a bit with the rest of your post though. Politics is fundamentally incapable of delivering a healthy sense of belonging.

We don’t disagree. that was the point of what I was saying. People feel happy and like the belong, but it’s not a healthy sense of belonging, it’s predatory and ultimately unfulfilling. But when there’s nothing else in their lives to compare it to, it feels pretty good.

[Fossilkid93]

@zarapochka

Huge components for my hapiness are eliminating TV and trying to shield myself as much as possible from advertizing. I think mass media are a really bad thing. They are designed to trigger amygdala and put everyone in the state of constant stress. + They don’t connect you more to the reality. I mean… I followed for a change the current russia stuff. The situation looks completely different dependent on what you watch/read. + They cost a shit load of time. To be in here and now instead of in whatever mass media shows is not a bad idea.

I think you’re probably onto something here. I’d add that social media could also be placed in the avoid category. Especially following other poker players who post big scores and stuff like that. I’m happy for them, but in the back of my mind wondering if I’m doing enough myself and wouldn’t it be sick to hit a 6 figure score.

I’ve been traveling a ton recently, and by necessity have had to store tons of stuff in different places. It’s made me realize that what I actually need is very minimal. It’s only when I see Tv or magazine ads touting some new product or walk down a street with tons of stores like Gucci where I get that itch that maybe I need something else.

Probably the most stressful thing for me in this moment is planning a future move. I’m between places now, and would maybe like to live in Europe someday, but usually that involves a great deal of money. Money to show for visas or buy a condo to qualify for a visa. I feel like it’s put pressure on my poker and been causing some stress. I was happier when I was in a slightly less exciting place, but without visions of grandeur in my head.

[mosdef]

Another interesting thing in the science of happiness is the association between happiness (via strong social connections) and imitative behaviors. This is one of those things that reaches back to evolutionary psychology and there’s evidence of humans being exceptionally imitative compared to other primates. Being imitative cultivates a sense of belonging and boosts happiness.

This observation possibly dovetails with some other of the trends that we’ve been talking about. On the political end the Republicans in the US are masters of imitative behavior, far far more than Democrats or independents. When the Republican hive mind gets out the message that everyone is supposed to say Let’s Go Brandon, they’re all doing it within a few days. This is absurd but also powerful behavior.

This also aligns to the observation that social media is basically a scourge tearing away at what holds humanity together. Instead of allowing for broad cross-group imitative behaviors, you get ruthlessly efficient algorithmic parsing of the population into highly imitative subgroups. This gives everyone intense feelings of social connections with the people in their “in group”, but also severely limiting the cross pollination of imitative behavior between groups that would enhance broad social harmony. Thanks Facebook.

[mosdef]

Here’s an interesting case study of how wealth plus dysfunction equals unhappiness. 4 brothers and $4 billion (albeit Canadian dollars, but still) and their whole lives fall part.

Inside a $4-billion family feud

One of the really key pillars of happiness is gratitude, and this story shows why. They all resent each other so much it prevents then from feeling any gratitude for the monumental advantages they have in life. What a waste.