Last updated on July 8, 2012
Who is happier about life — liberals or conservatives? The answer might seem straightforward. After all, there is an entire academic literature in the social sciences dedicated to showing conservatives as naturally authoritarian, dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity, fearful of threat and loss, low in self-esteem and uncomfortable with complex modes of thinking. And it was the candidate Barack Obama in 2008 who infamously labeled blue-collar voters “bitter,” as they “cling to guns or religion.” Obviously, liberals must be happier, right?
Wrong. Scholars on both the left and right have studied this question extensively, and have reached a consensus that it is conservatives who possess the happiness edge.
From an American Enterprise Institute op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times titled “Why Conservatives Are Happier than Liberals” — and which is surely going to make conservatives happier and liberals less so.
And the Award for Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the Year Goes to…
Last updated on July 8, 2012
Who is happier about life — liberals or conservatives? The answer might seem straightforward. After all, there is an entire academic literature in the social sciences dedicated to showing conservatives as naturally authoritarian, dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity, fearful of threat and loss, low in self-esteem and uncomfortable with complex modes of thinking. And it was the candidate Barack Obama in 2008 who infamously labeled blue-collar voters “bitter,” as they “cling to guns or religion.” Obviously, liberals must be happier, right?
Wrong. Scholars on both the left and right have studied this question extensively, and have reached a consensus that it is conservatives who possess the happiness edge.
From an American Enterprise Institute op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times titled “Why Conservatives Are Happier than Liberals” — and which is surely going to make conservatives happier and liberals less so.
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Published in Commentary