Conservatives are Happier than Liberals

[Burf]

FOXNews.com - Why Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

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.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance.

In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

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 both 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.

The same rationalizing phenomena could apply to personal situations as well.

"There is no reason to think that the effects we have identified here are unique to economic forms of inequality," the researchers write. "Research suggests that highly egalitarian women are less happy in their marriages compared with their more traditional counterparts, apparently because they are more troubled by disparities in domestic labor."

The current study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Spoilered for length (although it's not really that long).

Discuss.

[AngryGerbil]

This shit again?

[Simas]

obvious study is obvious.

This thread will be nothing but a clusterfuck.

[Korioni]

If conservatives are happier, it's because they get what they want. Pointless to speculate though because there's about 5 thousand things that could throw off this "study". Seems to me, liberals are more likely to admit to being unhappy as they like to see change whereas a conservative can't admit to being unhappy since they're unwilling to change enough to become happy. So they convince themselves that they are. Then there's the problem that their survey likely consisted of 500 telephone calls, 90% of which hung up after they realized it was a survey.

Fuck it all, I hate "study's". Possibly the single most pointless act you can have performed by a telemarketer.

[Kreugen]

Because liberals think everyone is entitled to fucking everything there is.

/didn't read article
//yes I read a lot of Fark

[Malakriss]

The world is like World of Warcraft, conservatives are casuals, and the government or Blizzard has to guarantee at least enough bones so they think they are happy.

[Asmadai]

Originally Posted by Kreugen

Because liberals think everyone is entitled to fucking everything there is.

This.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

I foresee great things for this thread:

Originally Posted by Dictionary

Rationalization - the process of constructing a logical justification for a belief, decision, action or lack thereof that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. It is a defense mechanism in which unacceptable behaviors or feelings are explained in a rational or logical manner; this avoids the true explanation of the behavior or feeling in question.

Rationalizations are not good things, and in fact, are tools used by those who cannot admit to why they think the way they think.

The article itself states that liberals are indeed more in touch with reality, because they cannot create an excuse for things that conservatives glaze over.

This quote is telling:

liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light

For the physical differences in people, inequality is indeed a neutral or positive thing, depending on your view of genetics, eugenics, or any myriad of "health of the species" topics.

However, when the vague term "inequalities" is applied to areas such as academic opportunity, healthcare coverage, or other important societal and economic factors, inequalities tend to become more of a problem than a neutral or positive factor towards a system. For instance, inequality in pay between women and men of the same education level exists today, and is not a good thing. Where a conservative will rationalize it away, the liberal will be cognizant of the problem. This contributes to an overall decline in "happiness" due to being more aware of social problems than their conservative counterparts.

In closing, "liberals" and "conservatives" are shown to either give a shit or not, based on how good they or their friends have it.

What a shocker.

[Lenaldo]

Originally Posted by Malakriss

The world is like World of Warcraft, conservatives are casuals, and the government or Blizzard has to guarantee at least enough bones so they think they are happy.

Are you sure its not the other way around? Every high-end, progression-based pve guild I have ever played in - From UO(lol) to WoW - has always been ran with a conservative mindset... IE... skill talks.... theres no time to train the weak... and the bad players need to "LOL LEARN ON THEIR OWN".


Can any of you honestly say that when you were pushing through black temple or even now in sunwell you goto stormwind, find the biggest newbie there is, and then take them through 25-man content helping them learn and giving them freebies? Because, its not fiar that they havnt had the same chance - know the same people, have past game exp, etc - as you to succeed, so its time that your progression-based guild start making sacrifices to get everyone else on the server at a competing level.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Asmadai

This.

QFT!

BLUE PLZ RESPOND

[Malice]

I cannot believe someone just said the world is like World of Warcraft.

[Soygen]

Originally Posted by Malice

I cannot believe someone just said the world is like World of Warcraft.

Are you trying to insinuate that it's not? They are practically identical!

[Vim]

How the fuck are conservatives casuals?

Regardless of what anyone answers...

Conservatives are Happier than Liberals... I didn't need a fucking study to know this.

[Fury]

Originally Posted by Vim

How the fuck are conservatives casuals?

Regardless of what anyone answers...

Conservatives are Happier than Liberals... I didn't need a fucking study to know this.

Just as Liberals are smarter than Conservatives. We don't need a fucking study to know that.

[Tyen]

Originally Posted by Fury

Just as Liberals are smarter than Conservatives. We don't need a fucking study to know that.

ohhhhhhhhhh burnnnnnnnnn