One word: "self-reported"
Ask me about my incredible biceps, triceps, abs and buns of steel. :-)
And that I.Q. ...
It's pretty easy for this sort of thing to devolve into political argument, so I'm going to try to approach it from a neutral standpoint that both political groups would agree with: broad generalization, but liberals are living in the "future" while conservatives are living in the "past." One thing that both sides generally agree on is that our current social ills are a modern phenomenon. Liberals and conservatives alike will tell you that it's important to live near the outdoors, near family [1], have a tight social network and groups you belong to. Meanwhile, conservatives are significantly more likely to have of those things.
Does that explain everything? No, not by a long shot. But I think it has a significant effect.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/section-3-po...
I think the issue ultimately comes down to what Ian Danskin described, paraphrased: that liberals see the faults in society as things that can be fixed, whereas conservatives see those faults as facts of life (reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yts2F44RqFw). Wouldn't you also be less happy if you viewed society's faults as fixable, where you rally, vote, and protest for them to be fixed, and yet they almost never are?
I think belonging is one of the most important contributors to mental health, and anecdotally, fewer liberals and leftists "belong" to a group.
There are progressive churches out there, for example, but they see much smaller membership overall than other denominations. Evangelical conservative megachurches are designed to foster a sense of belonging and community for those who can believe their teachings. Progressive churches celebrate the questioning mind and search for meaning, which actively does not create a culture of conformity, and hence raises the barrier to allow people to feel like they belong.
We know that hazing rituals, shared uniforms and appearance, and groupthink create strong bonds, but also lead to little-t and capial-T traumas, especially for queer or neurodivergent folks who may never truly "fit in" without heavy masking or closeting. Leftists also have a problem with gatekeeping, contrast this with evangelicals who design easy paths in to their churches for folks who "haven't done the required reading"
Additionally, the active suppression of liberal/leftist and queer groups (e.g. McCarthyism), the AIDS crisis, leftist infighting, and leftist distrust of authority mean a lot of young progressives are starting from scratch or facing large headwinds in finding any sort of social group. The Internet is helping combat this, but the lack of elders, advisors, and established routes to leadership mean that there aren't many organizations to even join, and the ones that do exist are often run poorly.
Contrast this with conservative groups which have generations of experience, leadership routes, training, etc. Individual evangelical colleges matriculate thousands of students while progressive religious programs are lucky to number in the 30-50 range.
Source: anecdotes and personal experience, as someone with leadership experience in a progressive religion :)
I think the simplest explanation would be simply that people align with ideology that serves them best, e.g. people who are less fortunate(in terms of health, life circumstances, etc) tend to align with left-wing equity and welfare messages, whereas it's no big secret that the right wing generally seeks just to preserve status quo, discrimination and inequality included, and that's much more likely to attract people who are happy with their lot in life.
Furthermore, the very act of caring about state- and world- level issues, of believing that climate change, sexism, racism, and other discriminations are rampant and big issues - is stressful. This would additionally explain why women are most affected - because misogyny directly affects them as a group.
As someone else pointed, the "self-reported" part is important too. Liberals are much more likely to talk about and admit to mental health struggles, while conservatives are more likely to tough it out and save face - because, somehow, even mental health has become politicised in the US.
I bet the answer rhymes with "honey".
Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine famously summarized the US left-wing position well with, “If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention.”
Conservatives don’t seem happier than liberals.
I’m quite confident the conservatives I know are fairly unhappy and unstable people, so is there a population of well-adjusted conservatives I never meet, or is this self-report bias?
I’m waiting until I get some concrete examples of what this happiness gap looks like in practice before I take these results too seriously.
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Likely stronger connections to the family, and both sexes generally report greater happiness in traditional gender roles.
Could it be that one group is more likely to be worried about issues like climate change and human rights, while the other group seems gleefully unconcerned?