Why Do Studies Show People on the Left Are Typically Less Happy Than the Average Person?

"Misery loves company." 

I found this to particularly be the case living as a libertarian in a liberal bubble during the pandemic. 

"Stay at home."

"Follow the science." 

"Where's your mask?" 

"Why are you traveling during a pandemic? You can't do that." 

I had people haranguing me about mask-wearing when the science is not in favor of mask mandates or mask-wearing generally. I still see people wiping down surfaces thinking they can prevent catching COVID, although it was proven by mid-2020 that COVID really does not get transmitted through surfaces. We have widely available COVID vaccines and I still see some masking up (even outdoors!) like it is 2020. 

Not only were Democrats more likely to be fearful of COVID (Morning Consult), but they were also more likely to experience mental distress as a result (Bock and Schnabel, 2022). What I noticed in my personal life was that on average, the pandemic made those on the Left more irritable, less optimistic, and general buzzkills because they were more likely to buy into the COVID fear-mongering. Thankfully, not all of my liberal friends were downers, but it was something I noticed more and more as the pandemic progressed. I would have thought that COVID vaccines or having Biden in the White House would have brought some solace or equanimity to my Left-leaning friends by now, but it did no such thing. If anything, they seem to have gotten more agitated during Biden's time in office, even though the Democrats have control of the White House and Congress.

Last month, I was reading a book from conservative political commentator Eddie Scarry called Liberal Misery: How the Hateful Left Sucks the Joy Out of Everything and Everyone. I was even able to meet the author after reading the first couple of chapters. I initially took the book with a grain of salt because his thesis was that liberals are more miserable than conservatives. I do not exist on the "conservative/liberal" spectrum. Some of my views lean Right and others Left, which means I do not have ideological skin in the outcome. I do not have a political affiliation and remain independent, which means I do not have partisan skin in the game either. 

I wanted to independently conduct research to see if what Scarry was saying was true. It turns out that he was correct: on average, those on the Left are less happy than those on the Right. I will be citing other studies throughout this piece, but one of the main studies that Scarry cited (and I will also be citing) was from scholars from the University of Florida and Toronto (Schlenker et al., 2012). 

There is research to suggest that those on the Left are more prone to neuroticism than those on the Right (McCann, 2018; Burton et al., 2015). This might seem like an insult to some, but the psychological definition of neuroticism is the extent to which a person experiences the world as distressing, threatening, or unsafe. This plays out in forms of depression, anxiety, self-doubt, and other negative feelings. More recently, data from Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel in March 2020 showed that those on the Left (particularly white people on the Far Left) are significantly more likely to have mental health issues. On a similar note, another study from the University of Southern California found that conservatives report greater purpose in meaning in life than liberals (Newman et al., 2018). 

I would have thought that this happiness gap was strictly an American thing, but this happiness gap also plays out in Canada (MacInnis et al., 2013) and Europe (Okulicz-Kozaryn et al., 2014). What is even more interesting is that this trend in the happiness gap is not anything new. I would argue that Trump's election and the pandemic were inflection points for the happiness gap between liberals and conservatives. I would also argue that increased pervasiveness of wokeness in the mainstream Left, Occupy Wall Street, and increased usage of social media amplified this gap over the past decade. 

Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner pointed out the happiness gap back in 2008. When you look through the data from the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey, which has been funded by the National Science Foundation, what you find is that this happiness gap between liberals and conservatives dates back at least to the 1970s. A 2006 report from the nonpartisan Pew Research similarly identifies this happiness gap between liberals and conservatives. 

None of this is to say that happy liberals or miserable conservatives do not exist because they do. However, when you look back at least five decades of survey data, they show that conservatives are on average happier than liberals. Even liberals over at the New York Times and The Atlantic have acknowledged the happiness gap.

Today, I do not want to debate whether the gap exists. Rather, I would like to dig into the reasons why such a gap would exist in the first place. Without causal mechanisms, all you have is correlation that may or may not have bearing on the matter. About 50 percent of the variation within the population on happiness is due to genetics (e.g., DeNeve et al., 2012). The other 40 percent is based on choice and one's lifestyle, whereas the other 10 percent is circumstance (Lyubomirsky, 2007). This does not apply to a given individual because an individual is not an entire population, but it does show us that on average, a significant portion of happiness is based on what we choose in life.  

But first, it makes sense to define happiness. I will quote The Happiness Advantage by Sean Achor for this portion. Happiness is what scientists refer to as subjective well-being (Achor, p. 39). It is an experience of positive emotions: pleasure combined with deeper feelings of meaning and purpose, which implies a positive mood in the present and a positive outlook for the future. Martin Seligman, who was a pioneer in positive psychology broke down happiness into three portions: pleasure, engagement, and meaning (ibid.). 

So what exactly is at play here? Does liberalism or progressivism make someone more miserable? Do less happier people gravitate towards being liberal? Or are conservatives more likely to partake in activities and lifestyle choices that result in greater happiness? I would like to take a look at happiness research and political philosophy in attempts to answer what accounts for this happiness gap. 

Reactions to inequality and unfairness. Life is unfair and can be difficult. What Stoicism, amongst other philosophies and religions, teaches is that what determines life quality is how you respond to life's difficulties. Epictetus taught that it was not so much external events that get us down, but how we respond to those events. That lesson seems to play out in the happiness gap between liberals and conservatives. 

A study from the Association for Psychological Science posits that the main reason for the happiness gap is because of rationalization of inequality. The authors concluded that "conservatives [more than liberals] possess an ideological buffer against the negative hedonic effects of income inequality" (Napier and Jost, 2008). As one of the authors of this paper, Jaime Napier, said on PBS, "one of the biggest [factors that] correlates in our surveys was the belief of meritocracy." 

To translate these findings, liberals are more likely to be disheartened because such inequalities exist. Conservatives, as well as libertarians such as myself, are not nearly as affected by it on an emotional level. This could be interpreted as conservatives not caring enough, although that can be harder to argue since conservatives give more to charity than liberals (Yang and Liu, 2021).

It is not because conservatives or libertarians do not recognize life's unfairness. It certainly exists. Part of where the typical conservative or libertarian differs is belief in hard work and perseverance, as we will see shortly. It is also the idea that as long as people have different levels of skillset, professional networks, and put in different levels of effort, there is bound to be inequality. Also, if you look at history (especially ancient history) or nature, you will see that inequality and hardship are defaults. It is not to say we should do nothing to make the world better, but there is only so much we can do. As an interesting Jewish tangent, the Talmud (Shabbat 151b) acknowledges that poverty will exist even when the Messiah shows up. Utopia does not exist. 

Resilience. Liberals can interpret the enhanced emotional reaction to inequality as a sign of "look how much I care." Their empathy can be seen as a virtue and that some happiness is the sacrifice to be that attune with the less fortunate. I do not see this level of empathy held by the typical liberal as a strength but as a weakness. It is not simply because it gets in the way of happiness. It is due to a utopian, unreachable goal that does not see the world for what it is. The world can be a dark and cold place. Technological development has not changed the fact that cruelty or injustice is still amongst us. If you try to care about every injustice or slight, you end up being emotionally exhausted and frustrated. 

Conservatives and libertarians are less likely to have this problem because they are more likely to keep their emotions in check. According to a study from Current Psychology (Briki and Dagot, 2020), conservatives are found to be happier than liberals because they "can bolster self-adaptive regulatory functions when exposed to threatening contexts." The study shows that self-regulatory factors such as perception of goal progress, dispositional self-control, and dispositional flow lead to greater subjective well-being in conservatives. This study shows that conservatives have better "mental adjustment," which is "indicated by the coping responses involved in adopting strategies to deal with or adapt to a situation." In other words, the level of empathy that the average liberal holds is all-encompassing and so overpowering that it gets in the way of them being emotionally resilient, adaptive, and ultimately happy with life. 

Personal Agency. The Florida State and Toronto University study previously cited at the beginning of this piece (Schlenker et al., 2012) has an interesting insight on the matter of personal agency (i.e., strong endorsements of personal control, responsibility, and reliability). Conservatives score higher on internal control, as well as the Protestant Work Ethic. "Liberals, on the other hand, are more likely to see outcomes as due to factors beyond one's personal control, including luck and properties of the social system (ibid.)." 

According to the authors, the differences in personal agency "could, in and of themselves, explain much of the happiness gap." The authors also find that "perceptions of inner control, self-efficacy, and the engagement in meaningful work are strongly correlated to life satisfaction." It makes sense. I know we cannot control everything, whether that is the weather, economy, or a pandemic. At the same time, what feels more empowering: having a sense of control (or at least strong influence) over your life trajectory or having to succumb to the whim of whatever external events come your way? Even author Brené Brown, who I have heard quoted my friends on the Left, said that "owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do." That ownership requires personal agency, which is a key component to happiness. 

Fear versus optimism. Everyone has fears at a certain point of time. Conservatives are not exempt from fear. Intuitively, you would think that libertarians and conservatives have higher levels of pessimism because they have a more negative view on human nature. There have been attempts to try to explain this view of human nature along with conservatives self-reporting greater levels of happiness.

One article at Science points out one of its own studies to try to explain the gap away by suggesting that conservatives are not actually happier. It is that conservatives merely put a positive spin on their lives, that they self-enhance. The study suggests that conservatives self-report greater happiness, but that liberals use more positive emotional language and more genuine smiles (Wojcik et al., 2015). This study uses language-processing software and an expert in facial recognition analysis to analyze survey results, U.S. politicians, Twitter users, and LinkedIn users. 

Let's think about the intuition behind this study for a second. Twitter and LinkedIn are part of social media. Social media is all about putting up a façade and a tendency to de-emphasize the bad in life. Social media is not the real world. If conservatives were the ones who were putting on a show and partaking in self-enhancement, it would show up it in social media, right? Yet it is the liberals who have a slightly more positive output on social media. 

Plus, even if conservatives put a more positive spin on their lives, so what? As previously illustrated, happiness is subjective well-being. Resilience and personal agency are those tools that help us cope with life's travails and create greater happiness. It is not how one views human nature per se that attributes to happiness. It is how one reacts to human nature and how the world is, as previously illustrated in the "Resilience" subsection. 

This is where a more optimistic viewpoint matters. A study from Kings College shows that positive thinking reduces anxiety (Eagelson et al., 2016). The Mayo Clinic illustrates how positive thinking reduces stress and lowers rates of depression. It is not the liberals who are as likely to possess this trait, but "conservatives exhibit a more positive outlook and stronger feelings of self-worth (Schlenker et al., 2012)." 

Yes, pundits and politicians on the political Right have their own fear-mongering, whether it has been over immigrants or terrorists. However, I think it is different than the modern-day Left's fear-mongering. There is something that I have observed from the mainstream Left's fear-mongering, whether it is Democrats being more likely to take on preventative measures against COVID (Kiviniemi et al., 2022) or Democrats being much more worried about climate change than Republicans (Pew Research). It is hard to listen to political pundits on the mainstream Left without the takeaway being that the world is going to end and there is no hope in sight. Even if climate change does not end up killing us all, income inequality and systemic racism are too prevalent from the mainstream Left's point of view to really enjoy anything in life without addressing life's unfairness first. 

This is not merely my take. An article from Cambridge University highlights why the political Left, particularly those who are well-educated, are more pessimistic (Hochschild, 2017). The Economist released some polling data back in January showing how Biden voters are more likely to view various issues more pessimistically than Trump voters (see below) about one year after Biden being in office. To bring it back to the main point of this subsection, positive thinking leads to happiness. The Left has put greater emphasis on gloom and doom than a positive mindset, which is a contributing factor to the happiness gap. Speaking of a positive mindset....

Gratitude versus Envy. I want to resume discussing inequality by discussing the theme of gratitude and how it relates to happiness. I also want to touch upon a few habits that are conducive to happiness, starting with gratitude. As Harvard University points out, there is a strong correlation between gratitude and wellbeing. There have been multiple studies released on the topic. Practicing gratitude develops an abundance mindset, which leads to happiness. 

Contrast that with envy. As I discussed last year, one of the quickest ways we can make ourselves miserable is through envy. The Association for Psychological Science study cited earlier (Napier and Jost, 2008) was released before the Occupy Wall Street movement. As previously discussed, the Left has been more and more focused on what others have in comparison to what they have, on the "haves" versus the "have nots."

In Hebrew, the term for gratitude (הכרת הטוב) means "to recognize the good." It does not mean that we ignore or deny the existence of inequality, oppression, or unfairness. It means that we acknowledge and put emphasis on the good that exists in our lives. If the narrative of the political Left is focused on being wronged, cheated, marginalized, or oppressed, is it a surprise that it becomes more difficult for someone on the Left to see the good in life? It seems quite difficult to be positive, optimistic, or ultimately happy with the scarcity mindset that has become more prevalent on the Left. 

Role of Religion and Spirituality. Liberals are less likely to hold religious beliefs than moderates or conservatives (Pew Research). I mention this because there has been a correlation between religion and subjective well-being. Religion or spirituality can play a role in happiness because "spiritual beliefs contribute to life satisfaction because they instill meaning and direction, offer senses of beauty, uplift, and optimism, provide explanations for events, give a sense of closeness to God, and offer comfort in difficult times, and these characteristics are above and beyond the larger, supportive social networks of those who are religious (Schlenker et al., 2012)." Another benefit of religious communities is that it minimizes the feeling of loneliness (Cox et al., 2019). One could argue that the lack of religious institutions, or at least social institutions that function similar to religious institutions, makes a liberal less likely to be happy. 

Meditation. I would have thought that meditation would have been something done overwhelmingly by liberals since the word can connote something more "hippy-dippy spiritual." Yet Pew Research found that 45 percent of conservatives meditate at least once a week, as opposed to 38 percent of liberals or 42 percent of independents. I know these data points are snapshots from 2014, but it nevertheless is an interesting find, even if it plays a modest role in the happiness gap. Meditation is found to reduce propensity towards negativity (Fredrickson et al., 2008), as well as release such chemicals as endorphins and serotonin. 

Being physically active and better health. There are multiple studies to show that exercise increases happiness, including this one from the University of Michigan (Zhang and Chen, 2018). It makes sense since exercise increases endorphins, dopamine, and adrenaline. Dopamine is especially important since it produces feelings of optimism. 

One study found that conservatives were more likely to be healthier than their liberal counterparts because conservatives place greater emphasis on personal responsibility (Chan, 2019). This could also be due to higher levels of conscientiousness among conservatives. In this case, conscientiousness refers to norms regarding impulse control, self-discipline, and being task-focused. As Psychology Today points out, conscientiousness leads to better health outcomes. Plus, those who believe in ideologies that endorse the importance of free will (e.g., conservatism, libertarianism) have greater self-control than those who do not (Clarkson et al., 2015).

Postscript. There are certainly some tendencies that both the Left and Right share that can impede happiness. Politicians and pundits on both sides use fear to advance their political views. Both sides have implemented their own version of moral policing at one point or another. It takes time and energy to obsess over how other people should behave the way you think they ought to behave. Also, either the Left and the Right can give in and many in the U.S. are giving into authoritarianism more and more. I bring up the authoritarianism because freedom and happiness are correlated (also see Brulé and Veenhoven, 2014).

In spite of there being some similarities between the mainstream Left and mainstream Right (aside from those in the previous paragraph), there are also a number of differences between the two, especially pertaining to individual well-being. A lot of the happiness gap between liberals and conservatives has to do with mindset. Author Roy T. Bennett said that "If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus living fully in the present." This is an adaptation of a Lao Tsu quote, but it nevertheless bears wisdom. Happiness has a major perspective component to it. Gratitude is about being able to see the good in life, even when times are difficult. Resilience is being able to have the perspective to cope and endure the bad times. The notion of personal agency gives one a greater sense of control of one's life, which attributes to happiness. 

In short, the happiness gap can be attributed to how the average liberal approaches life in comparison to everyone else. The average person on the Left possesses less emotional resilience, greater propensity towards envy, less optimism, and is less likely to exercise personal agency and take a sense of ownership in life. What the mainstream Left has decided to emphasize in recent years does play a role in their happiness relative to everyone else. What should provide my friends on the Left some solace is that the happiness gap is not inherently a part of the ideology. While it is not my case to make, I think the mainstream Left could find a way to be more optimistic and live in a way that is more conducive to happiness. Whether the Left ends up rediscovering a sense of optimism remains to be seen. What I will say is such a rediscovery would not only be in their political interest, but especially in the interest of their well-being and happiness.