Study Finds Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals, But Not As ‘Psychologically Rich’
This doesn't mean one is better than the other.
Rawpixel.com | Shutterstock People with conservative and liberal mindsets are, obviously, not the same. It would be impossible to possess such large differences in beliefs and not have some contrasting characteristics.
In a new study, researchers found that conservatives and liberals are fundamentally different when it comes to their levels of happiness and psychological richness. But what does that mean, exactly?
Research suggests that conservatives are happier than liberals.
A study in the Journal of Personality called “Differing worldviews: The politics of happiness, meaning and psychological richness” sought to determine which political ideology holds the most happiness and meaning in their lives.
To conduct the study, researchers examined six groups of people, including four separate groups of college students from the United States and two samples of American and Korean adults.
Psy Post, which reported on the study, noted, “Happiness is often defined by life satisfaction and positive emotions, while meaning involves a sense of purpose or fulfillment.”
The study found that conservative happiness is based on finding life's purpose through hard work and success.
“Happiness was associated with political conservatism and system justification, and meaning in life was associated with Protestant work ethic,” researchers wrote.
Psy Post said, “This connection may be due to factors such as system justification, the belief that societal structures are fair, which can create a stable foundation for feeling content and purposeful."
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"Furthermore, the Protestant work ethic — a belief in the value of hard work as a path to success — is often embraced by conservatives and has been tied to a strong sense of life purpose.”
So, those with a more conservative mindset are generally more happy, as they are pleased with existing societal systems and find meaning in their work ethic.
On the other hand, liberals have more psychologically rich lives.
This may sound like bad news for liberals, who apparently do not find as much happiness and meaning in life. But those trade-offs come with benefits, too, such as greater psychological richness.
According to Psy Post, “Psychological richness refers to a life filled with new, varied, and stimulating experiences that broaden one’s perspective. This quality differs from happiness or meaning in that it emphasizes diversity and complexity over contentment or purpose.”
Therefore, liberals may not be as conventionally happy as conservatives, but they are arguably seeking more variety in their lives.
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This, researchers said, contrasted with a previously developed “narrow theory.”
“According to previous research, a life of system-defiant, political liberalism is unlikely to be a ‘good’ one, as research shows that happiness and meaning are more closely linked to political conservatism and system justification,” they said.
Because they proved that liberals live lives full of psychological richness, researchers shut down the belief that only a life of conservatism was worthwhile due to its link to happiness and meaning.
Researchers were quick to point out that one life is not better than the other.
It would be easy to read the results of this study and come to the conclusion that one way of life is better than the other based on your preference for either happiness or psychological richness. Those who performed the study said this is not necessarily true.
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“As discussed in detail elsewhere,” they said, “we are not claiming that a psychologically rich life is by any means better than a happy life or a meaningful life … Our work merely illustrates that a good life should not be narrowly construed as only either a happy life or a meaningful life and that this restricted view can obscure other important aspects of a good life — such as low levels of system justification and desires for societal changes.”
So, while science may tell us that one ideology leads to more happiness and the other to more psychological richness, one is not better than the other.
Everyone can draw their own conclusions about what is most important.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.