The Unbearable Rightness of Being Happy

In his recent column in The Economist, subtitled Why conservatives are happier than liberals, “Lexington” quotes Syracuse University economist Arthur Brooks’ research finding that:

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In 2004 Americans who called themselves “conservative” or “very conservative” were nearly twice as likely to tell pollsters they were “very happy” as those who considered themselves “liberal” or “very liberal” (44% versus 25%). One might think this was because liberals were made wretched by George Bush. But the data show that American conservatives have been consistently happier than liberals for at least 35 years.

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Explanations are offered - conservatives are more likely to be married, parents, and churchgoers, and that “the conservative world view is more conducive to happiness than the liberal one”. Strangely, Lexington does not mention the obvious: that people happier with the status quo are more likely to be conservative. Contentment breeds conservatism, not necessarily the reverse.

Professor Brooks also reaches another interesting conclusion through his survey-based research: that partisans are happier than moderates:

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Some 35% of those who call themselves “extremely liberal” say they are very happy, against only 22% of ordinary liberals. For conservatives, the gap is smaller: 48% to 43%. Extremists are happy, Mr Brooks reckons, because they are certain they are right. Alas, this often leads them to conclude that the other side is not merely wrong, but evil. Some two-thirds of America’s far left and half of the far right say they dislike not only the other side’s ideas, but also the people who hold them.

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Intuitively, this seems more reasonable, if summarily disheartening. (Caveat: I have not read the original research. A brief look at Prof. Brooks’ column titles - yes I know editors write taglines, not columnists - that include Liberal Hatemongers and The Upside of Bush’s Foreign Policy creates the suspicion that we aren’t dealing with a detached observer. Then again, perhaps it is better to be happy than to be true.)

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