Are conservatives happier than liberals?

[AirPo]

IIRC right-wing authoritarians--and I don't know that this maps to conservative all the time--tend to score much higher than non-RWAs on measures of fear. I have no idea how this plays out with the happiness thing.

Maybe it's because they are so happy when they realize their fears were unfounded?

 

[BostonTzar]

Someone who supports secession must be dissatisfied in some way with the current state of affairs. Wouldn't you agree?

No. Can you entertain the possibility that someone can be perfectly happy with the current circumstances but see a better opportunity resulting from a specific action?

 

[SummerMadness]

So it's about envy.

Dynamite analysis, it's all about envy.

 

[Joykins]

No. Can you entertain the possibility that someone can be perfectly happy with the current circumstances but see a better opportunity resulting from a specific action?

It seems less likely to breed *extreme* reactions like secession.

 

[technofox]

I am independent and quite happy, except when the Tea party shutdown government instead of using a legislative process to remove a law they don't like or they pass a spending bill and them don't want to pay the bills. Basically the Tea Party rarely makes me happy.

 

[Savior2006]

No. Can you entertain the possibility that someone can be perfectly happy with the current circumstances but see a better opportunity resulting from a specific action?

I don't see how someone can find an improvement over "perfectly happy."

 

[AirPo]

I don't see how someone can find an improvement over "perfectly happy."

Their called trophy wives!

 

[MachZer0]

I'd imagine conservatives are happier than liberals because conservatives don't have to deal with conservatives.

Conservatives do fine dealing with conservatives. On the other hand, a lot of our tolerant liberal friends get absolutely livid when they encounter someone who holds a different viewpoint. So it's no wonder conservatives are happier

 

[AirPo]

Conservatives do fine dealing with conservatives. On the other hand, a lot of our tolerant liberal friends get absolutely livid when they encounter someone who holds a different viewpoint. So it's no wonder conservatives are happier

Psst. It has nothing to do with the viewpoint. Just thought I'd let you know.

 

[MachZer0]

Psst. It has nothing to do with the viewpoint. Just thought I'd let you know.

Thanks for admitting the part about becoming livid.

 

[AirPo]

Thanks for admitting the part about becoming livid.

You reap what you sow.

 

[MachZer0]

You reap what you sow.

A fair warning to my livid liberal friends. Thanks again

 

[Savior2006]

On the other hand, a lot of our tolerant liberal friends get absolutely livid when they encounter someone who holds a different viewpoint.

And a lot of conservatives are livid when liberals voice dissenting opinions.

 

[Yoder777]

There are some very basic reasons why conservatives, in general, are happier than liberals, regardless of individual income level. While liberals look at income inequality and see it as the result of a fundamentally unjust system, conservatives look at the same income inequality and see it as the result of merit, such as some people being more intelligent, working harder, etc. than others.

Liberals look at poverty in the United States as a shameful disgrace that proves the fundamentally unjust nature of our society, while conservatives look at America's poor and see that they are well off compared to a vast majority of the world's people. Even conservative poor people tend to be happier than liberal poor people, and because of their positive outlook, are probably more likely to move up in society as well.

These facts are well documented by organizations like the Pew Research Center:
http://pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/AreWeHappyYet.pdf

If anything I am saying is not true, please prove it wrong. Watching this video alone should dispel the negative view that liberals tend to have about America's economic system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP60sIKKJWQ

 

[SummerMadness]

Citing the bottom 5% earn more than 93% around the glob is false equivalence, there is a different cost and standard of living, so you cannot make such a comparison. You cannot even do that when comparing states. Living in the Northeast or West Coast is more expensive compared to the South. You can't take a salary of say $30,000 and expect to live the same lifestyle in all locations.

 

[wintermile]

So it's about envy.

Intellectually, are you ready for a FIGHT or FLIGHT Round?


Individuals who compete with other individuals have an overall healthy outllook.

Individuals compete for rerepresentation, influence, and platforms to organize ideas.

Individuals compete and serve others when advocating against Right to Harm proponents.

Individuals compete and serve others when advocating for policies addressing prevention from societal disconnection.

When youths experience 50 poverty shocks or more a day and become disconnected, competing individuals are there to aboilish poverty shocking policies.

When individuals are subjected to threats against the middle class via Right to Work states, competing advocates serve others to organize for economic mobility and middle class security.

Individuals compete and serve others when advocating against widespread outsourcing of jobs.

Individuals compete and serve others when informing individuals about the benefits of taxation.

 

[katherine2001]

I think that less conservative people (people often don't fall into either category) are happier. I don't think paranoid people are very happy.

 

[katherine2001]

The conservative posters in these forums sure don't seem very happy. They're always angry, and are constantly complaining about Obama, Democrats, Liberals, the MSM, the federal government, and who knows what else. How happy can someone be who wants to secede from the rest of the country?

I used to be a conservative until the above started happening. When people honestly believe that the President is going to put people in a camp because they didn't get the H1N1 vaccination, I am out (by the way, I did not get the vaccination and was not put into a camp). Not to mention that they start accusing the President wasn't born in the US, and that a conspiracy was set up at the time of his birth to fool people that he was not actually born in Hawaii but in Kenya. I agree, those considered conservatives are very angry.

 

[Saleena]

When you don't have to think much you are usually happier.
*standard ignorance is bliss response*

 

[Joykins]

There are some very basic reasons why conservatives, in general, are happier than liberals, regardless of individual income level. While liberals look at income inequality and see it as the result of a fundamentally unjust system, conservatives look at the same income inequality and see it as the result of merit, such as some people being more intelligent, working harder, etc. than others.

Liberals look at poverty in the United States as a shameful disgrace that proves the fundamentally unjust nature of our society, while conservatives look at America's poor and see that they are well off compared to a vast majority of the world's people. Even conservative poor people tend to be happier than liberal poor people, and because of their positive outlook, are probably more likely to move up in society as well.

These facts are well documented by organizations like the Pew Research Center:
http://pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/AreWeHappyYet.pdf

If anything I am saying is not true, please prove it wrong. Watching this video alone should dispel the negative view that liberals tend to have about America's economic system:
Matt Mitchell Explains World Income Inequality - YouTube

Hm, according to the Pew study:

Might ideology be the key? It’s true that conservatives, who are more likely to be Republican, are happier than liberals, who are more likely to be Democrats. But even controlling for this ideological factor, a significant
partisan gap remains. Conservative Republicans are happier than conservative Democrats, and moderate/liberal Republicans are happier than liberal Democrats. Hmmm, what other factors might be at play? Well, there’s
always…[religious attendance]
...
[Regression] analysis shows that the most robust correlations of all those described in this report are health, income, church attendance, being married and, yes, being a Republican. Indeed, being a Republican is associated not only with happiness, it is also associated with every other trait in this cluster. Even so, the factor that makes the most difference in predicting happiness is neither being a Republican nor being wealthy—it’s being in good health.

IOW, being Republican is associated with a cluster of traits (being rich, wealthy, healthy, married, and going to church) that contribute to happiness. This is actually a partisan thing and not precisely a liberal/conservative thing..

I mean, I'm a healthy, married, financially secure, church-attending liberal Democrat and I would describe myself as very happy.

It's my observation that the extreme of the right wing (where I would put the Tea Party) correlates with fear about the present and the future and the opinion that the country is going to heck in a handbasket. There is sociological data that correlates right-wing authoritarianism with fear and hostility (Rightwing Authoritarianism and Conservative Identity Politics (Pt 3 in the series) ), which doesn't seem too happy to me, but I don't know whether those people are showing up as Republican or fall between Republican and Independent in the Pew study, or whether perhaps they self-reported as happy anyway.