Examining causality: why are conservatives happier than liberals?
I recently read (in The Economist) about a study showing that over the course of the last 30 years, conservatives have consistently claimed to be “very happy” more often than liberals. Many people try to use this data to say that conservatism directly causes happiness… but before arriving at a conclusion like that, we need to examine the causality.
So, like I always do, I decided to parse the data about the demographics of liberals vs. conservatives. I found a study included 9 overall groups; there were three major groups for liberals, conservatives, and moderates and each had three subgroups for different socioeconomic backgrounds. They surveyed the different groups and published the data, which seems to be very telling.
I think there are a few interesting explanations for why conservatives are happier:
- Graduate degrees
Among the 9 political groups in the study, the most liberal people were the most likely to be highly educated (postgraduate degree); as everybody seems to agree, “ignorance is bliss”… so a more educated person is less likely to be satisfied with the world. - Bachelor’s degrees
Among people of a lower socioeconomic status, conservatives were more likely to be moderately educated (undergraduate degree) than liberals; this suggests that less advantaged conservatives are more likely to be successful than less advantaged liberals, which would probably make the conservatives happier. - Wealth
Conservatives are more likely to be wealthy (income over $75,000/year) than moderates or liberals. Liberals are more likely to disagree with the statement “paying the bills is not generally a problem” and to agree with the statement “I often can’t make ends meet.” Without the added stress of working overtime and falling behind on bills, I think it’s obvious that a group would be happier on average. Money may not buy happiness, but lack of money does lead to unhappiness. - Family
Conservatives are more likely than moderates/liberals to be married and have children; companionship tends to make a person more content with their life. - Optimism
Among people with a relatively disadvantaged socioeconomic background, conservatives are far more optimistic than liberals. This group of people was told that “people can get ahead with hard work”; conservatives agreed in 76% of cases, while liberals agreed in only 14% of cases. A similar trend was clear with less disadvantaged liberals/conservatives, but it was less drastic. - Religion
Conservatives are the most religious of the three groups and liberals are the least religious, suggesting that conservatives are more likely to believe that God will solve all of their problems. - Future
Conservatives are more likely to be stock traders or small business owners, suggesting that they perceive themselves to be in control of their own future. - Pride
As one would expect, conservatives tend to display the American flag more often than liberals. This leads me to believe that conservatives are more proud and more satisfied with their country.
I think these 8 factors explain why a typical conservative is happier than a typical liberal. Now we can look at the causality: is the political viewpoint causing the happiness or vice versa? In other words, would you be happier if you became more conservative?
Based on the data, I don’t think so. It seems like the causality follows an indirect trend; certain variables lead to both conservatism and happiness, and neither the political viewpoint nor the happiness can predict one another. Optimism and pride seem to cause life satisfaction and conservatism; higher education and pessimism, meanwhile, seem to cause dissatisfaction and liberalism.
Personally, I think it’s better to have more people who are unsatisfied with the status quo… this will lead to change and, eventually, improvement. Of course, we also need plenty of satisfied people to balance them out, so that we’re not constantly changing everything. Overall, it seems that this two-party system (which, as many Americans don’t realize, most countries don’t have) is keeping the US in a delicate balance that has probably contributed greatly to the nation’s success.
Popularity: 67% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I think a lot of those figures are incorrect. First off its very difficult for anyone who comes from a poor back ground to achieve wealth in todays world, so its rather condecending of consveratives to say if you ‘work’ hard you’ll achieve anything. Most of them got wealthy from their parents.
Secondly you’d be hard pressed to find a consverative who claims anything but happiness. They’re strict following of religion tells them they must be happy if they are with God. So they convince themselves they are regardless of the truth. Or at least they lie to others to convince them of that.
Optimism can be dellusional and isn’t always a positive as some would have you believe. There’s being hopeful and positive, and then their’s being foolish and ignorant to reality.
Im sure the majority of them DO obtain the illusion of what is supposed to make you happy in our culture. (ie) Wealth, family, and religious peace of mind. It remains to be proven if those things actually do bring about true happiness.
As for the flag bit, I have no idea how you equate showing a flag as the ultimate pride in your nation? One behavior doesn’t sum up the entire spectrum of ‘Pride’. Take Barak Obama for example. He’s a person who’s worked his entire career serving the communities around him. Yet he doesn’t wear a flag pin. If he had no pride in the community or nation he’s worked for then why would he do it? Surely there was other options open to him for a career. It’s ridculous to assume one symbol proves your pride in something.
I have both a wealthy family, and a degree but I am not wealthy myself, nor do I have my own family, nor do I wave a flag, attend church, or vote conservative. Why? because I know from experience that conservatives make a huge deal about things like flag pins. And if they were really that happy with themselves and the world why would they care if someone wore a pin or not?
From you’re earlier post you mentioned how music has the ability to stir emotions and make you feel a certain way. These lyrics come from a man who was very proud of his nation, and very wealthy too.
How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way
But little they know
That it’s so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind
-Johnny Cash
There are plenty of exceptions to the trends… but I’m just saying what studies show on average. I’ve been both wealthy and poor in my life, and let me tell you this: we may have complained about our problems when we had money, but we had the same problems (and much more) when we were didn’t have money.
Thats true, you’re problems get compounded when you don’t have money. However I can’t agree that conservatives are more happy than liberals in general. Especially when I don’t feel like the root of happiness has anything to do with finances. Maybe its just my opinion but I feel like anyone would be happy if they felt they were respected, were a contribution to soceity, felt secure and surrounded by people who love them. I think that’s what makes a person happy.
What the study basically says is that conservatives are better than liberals since the entire goal of our life is to be happy, and I don’t agree with it. I think the study is wrong. I think liberals tend to speak out about what bothers them more than conservatives. That doesn’t mean they aren’t as happy.
The study wasn’t about being outspoken… it just asked people whether they consider themselves to be happy. Of course, there is a natural error with the question… but I’d think if you consider yourself happier, then you’re probably happier overall.
I think there are a lot of reasons why the conservatives think they’re happier (like I said). Whether they’re actually happy is a separate issue. I, for example, am happier than I was 5 years ago… but 5 years ago, I would have said I was “very happy” out of naïvete. Now I’m happier, but I realize that I could be even better. Like I said in the post, ignorance is bliss.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022202012.html
This author suggests about another possibility–pessimism makes conservatives happier, and anger makes liberals less happy.
As suggested by the folks at Freakonomics, it’s quite possible that being religious simply makes people happier and more optimistic, which may explain part of the difference in happiness: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/the-politics-of-happiness-part-2/#more-2570
I had to talk about this on my own blog because I find this so interesting. I understand that the study simply asked people if they were happy. But what I’m saying is the results of the study have to be incorrect because of the reasons I explained and secondly because there is no clear defintion of what they mean by ‘happiness’ The entire thing just reeks of conservative propoganda to me something they’d rant about on a Fox News fluff piece.
Married people live longer; religious people live longer; optimists live longer. All have a higher overall quality of life. So conservatives live longer, are happier, and have a higher quality of life. They also appear to be more financially successful.
So - why, again, aren’t you conservative?
The point of the post was to examine causality. Just because conservatives “live longer, are happier, and have a higher quality of life” doesn’t mean that conservatism directly causes longevity and happiness. On the contrary, I think it’s more accurate to say that happy people are more likely to become conservative, since conservatives are generally happy with the status quo and liberals are more likely to call for change.