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yet another liberal -vs- conservative study on happiness

$tinkle

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
livescience.com

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

If your beliefs don't justify gaps in status, you could be left frustrated and disheartened, according to the researchers, Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University. They conducted a U.S.-centric survey and a more internationally focused one to arrive at the findings.

"Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives," the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science, "apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light."

The results support and further explain a Pew Research Center survey from 2006, in which 47 percent of conservative Republicans in the U.S. described themselves as "very happy," while only 28 percent of liberal Democrats indicated such cheer.
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reads a bit like a horoscope in its vaguery, & can't help but wonder if these numbers will invert w/ a few years of a liberal president
 
S

skinny mike

Turbo Monkey
Jan 24, 2005
6,415
0
translation: greedy conservatives have no souls, thus no guilt to make them unhappy...

either that or annoying hippie liberals care too much about stupid issues?

maybe both?
 
$tinkle

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
i have a hard time w/ this
To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.
Click to expand...
so cops & teachers deserve low wages, and actors & athletes deserve to be multi-millionaires in their early 20's?

rubbish.
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
I always felt that. I think conservatives can be unfeeling, but that's better than acknowledging the real problems and then trying to deal with them.
 
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