May 8, 2008
OF COURSE THEY AREN'T HAPPY, THEY'RE FRENCH:
Conservatives Happier Than Liberals (Jeanna Bryner, 5/07/08, LiveScience.com)
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. [...]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.
How can they happy when their political ideology forces them to deny reality? Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2008 11:04 AM
The ideology of "openmindedness and tolerance for all cultures and ideologies" forces them into a life of self-hating hypocrisy. You can't live without judging others so, to them, the very act of living makes them what they hate the most. When I came over to the dark side, I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
Posted by: Bryan at May 8, 2008 12:01 PMIntelligent Design is infinitely more "scientific" than this nonsense, and I'd wager than anything that is printed in the typical year of the journal "Psychological Science."
Posted by: b at May 8, 2008 12:32 PMWhen we read the article, a very direct interpretation of the data springs forth.
Those who observe the Tenth Commandment are happier--that simple, case closed.
Those who go through life coveting their neighbors' goods are ipso facto condemned to an existence of resentment and envy.
We all understand how the ideology of envy and resentment is destructive of societies and economies. It should come as no surprise that is is likewise destructive of the individual sinner.
Posted by: Lou Gots at May 9, 2008 4:04 AM