Happy girls are the prettiest ~ A. Hepburn
image
By
ARTHUR C. BROOKS
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. Many data sets show this. For example, the
Pew Research Center in 2006
reported
that conservative Republicans were 68 percent more likely than liberal
Democrats to say they were “very happy” about their lives. This pattern
has persisted for decades. The question isn’t whether this is true, but
why...
Continue reading... via
The Mayor
No comments:
Post a Comment