Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals

As I've noted before, conservatives have reported being happier than liberals in each of the past 35 years that such data has been collected by the General Social Survey. If it was just "most" years then there might be room for argument on the merits, but 35 straight years? Nope. Sorry, there's no arguing here.

Today this article in the Economist goes into detail about why this is the case.

They question Arthur Brooks, a Syracuse professor, regarding his book "Gross National Happiness". He finds that parenthood and religiosity are both strongly correlated to happiness and are more likely among conservatives.

He also goes on to hypothesize that conservatives are more likely to be optimistic about the future and feel more in control of their lives. Liberals on the other hand tend to associate themselves with one victim group or another and are depressed as such.

These findings were also recently reinforced by the finding that gun-owners were happier than their unarmed peers. Gun-owners are also more likely to consider themselves self-sufficient and in control of their own destinies.

This all makes perfect sense to me, but some people still can't get over the idea of conservatives as "bigoted", "intolerant", "angry", etc.. Projection anybody?

Professor Brooks also found that liberals are quite a bit more likely than conservatives to say that they not only don't like opposite points of view, but that they don't like the PEOPLE who hold those views.

This also makes sense as you don't read about liberal speakers being hit with pies, shouted down, or physically attacked. Last week an unhinged Bush basher actually punched a wheelchair bound girl during a protest. These stories are rather familiar to conservatives, but don't often make it into the mass media.

Think we're going to see any marches against liberal intolerance anytime soon?

What's the funniest about all of this though has been the comments by liberals on the Economist website and sites like Digg regarding this article.

One reader brought up the "fact" that people in Mexico and El Salvador are happier than American. That seems highly unlikely considering how many of them are trying to move here. This happy liberal reader's handle was "jeff666". Go figure.

Another happy liberal reader writes: The verdict is in and you're guilty as charged: Conservatives are happier for two reasons: 1. Because secretly they don't give a shit about America and 2.) You're just too stupid to see when something is wrong. You know. Like Iraq. All you motherfuckers thought that was a great idea. And look how well that went.

Another compassionate, happy liberal writes: So are Down's Syndrome people(happy)

More: "I don't have to be married and go to Church to be happier..
I'm quite fine with the occasional Vegas trip and hooker motif!",

"This could just as easily have been titled "Why stupid people are happier than smart people."

"Bottom line, conservatives are more likely to lie and imitate a happy person."