The Politics of Happiness

Are conservatives really happier than liberals?

At first glance, the data seem unambiguous. Yes, conservatives report feeling happier than liberals. It’s not just happiness either. Conservatives are more satisfied than liberals when it comes to their personal lives, employment situations, the number of friends they have, and their spousal relationships. (But not their sex lives, interestingly.) Conservatives also report feeling lonely less often. 

So, what are we to make of this? First, I should note that none of these differences are huge. The liberal-conservative gap on most measures of satisfaction is no more than ten points. Meaningful, but in most other ways the differences between liberals and conservatives are far greater. 

The next question is: why? Thomas Edsall runs through the scholarship on the ideological happiness divide and finds that it boils down to either two things: worldview or lifestyle. 

Is there something inherent in liberalism that makes people miserable? Polls show that liberals tend to be more preoccupied wit…