Excerpts from an interesting op-ed in The Economist:
Numerous studies and surveys—Americans are obsessed with this subject—show that some groups tend to lag behind others in the pursuit of happiness: bankers are said to be sadder than lumberjacks, the unmarried sadder than the married, teenage girls sadder than teenage boys.One distinction that holds true today has persisted for decades: liberals are sadder than conservatives. This is a global symptom of political difference, but it is particularly strong in America. Of whatever age group or whichever sex, liberals are also far more likely than conservatives to report having been diagnosed with a mental illness...In a study in 2021 called “The Politics of Depression”, a group of scholars zeroed in on the possible link between political ideology and unhappiness among teenagers... Liberal boys reported higher rates of depression than conservative boys or girls, and liberal girls reported the highest rates of all...Conservatives tend to be healthier, more patriotic and more religious, and to report finding higher levels of meaning in their lives. These characteristics correlate with happiness...Another hypothesis, advanced by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, and Greg Lukianoff, a lawyer, is that liberals are performing a reverse cognitive behavioural therapy on themselves: promoting not resilience and optimism about incrementally improving the world but catastrophic rumination about problems such as climate change and fearfulness of disagreement even on university campuses. Such habits of mind can deepen depression...“One of the fundamental traits of the conservative attitude is a fear of change, a timid distrust of the new as such,” wrote Friedrich Hayek in “The Constitution of Liberty” in 1960, “while the liberal position is based on courage and confidence, on a preparedness to let change run its course.”.. Donald Trump has robbed liberalism of its transgressive glamour and made conservatism mean its opposite: disruption, subversion, challenge to fuddy-duddies and the status quo—all that cool stuff. It’s kind of depressing.
Without having read the entire article, I'd say this excerpt makes a good argument that ignorance is bliss.
ReplyDelete"Conservatives tend to be healthier" perhaps because they are also wealthier and can afford better food? On the other hand, we've often seen maps for obesity and life expectancy which tend to disfavor red states, so I'm confused.
ReplyDelete"...more patriotic" perhaps because (especially more recently) laws and court rulings favor conservatives while liberals are more often struggling and fighting for equal rights and privileges? It's hard to feel patriotic for a country that constantly oppresses you.
"...liberals are also far more likely than conservatives to report having been diagnosed with a mental illness" perhaps because "having been diagnosed" requires seeking mental health care which conservatives are less likely to do?
There's so much more to all this and too many conclusions painting the wrong picture here.
I don't believe there are "conclusions" here - just numbers and hypotheses
DeleteCuz they care about the world going to hell?
ReplyDeleteThe link is behind a paywall.
Yes it is. Depending on the balance between your finances and your ethical stadards, you might consider plugging the url into the Internet Archive: https://archive.is/
DeleteMy internet ethics standard have been in the drain since Napster showed up last millennium.
DeleteBut anyway, it's funny you pick this out, as opposed to the fact that Americans are getting unhappier very fast, compared to the rest of the world.
Pretty easy to explain if you look at the major policy differences between the happy countries and the US. Near-free education. Universal healthcare. Paid leave. Strong unions. Decent climate change action. Less inequality. Etc.
In short, other countries have taken away things that are major concerns of Americans. Huge healthcare bills, crushing college cost. Time to get away from work. Decent treatment at work. The environment. Inequality.
It seems everybody is struggling with the massive migration from the global south to the north.
There is no reason why America can't do these things.
Trump is an excellent example of someone whose happiness comes from not caring about anyone else.
ReplyDeleteFive or ten years ago I read that science had determined that, as your family income increased, you were likely to be happier. There was a big jump between really suffering and having just enough, then detected happiness levels, however they measured that, smoothly ramped up to a plateau at around $60,000 a year. After that, they said, money wasn't so much a factor anymore. It might be that naturally happy people are more likely to be hired, and then more able to keep their job and rise through the ranks, and it might be that being oblivious to the suffering of others is part of being happy. It might be that people with a great deal of money just don't have to worry about any of that; they're the ones hiring and firing others, and have others to manage unpleasant situations and make them go away, and flying someplace nice to take pictures of themselves there, and thinking themselves deserving of all this, and of course they want to keep things the way they are and not rock the boat; there's little incentive for them to think too deeply about it. But when people who are working hard to live and still suffering have conservative opinions against the interests of themselves and most of the people on Earth, what can explain that? When everything in your life is precarious, change might knock the pins out of what little support structure you have. In the long run that could be good, but rent is due now. Now. It doesn't help explain all this that the definitions of all words in public discourse are more fluid than ever and depend on one's media bubble. And then try to define happiness.
ReplyDelete