Monday, March 03, 2008

What Makes Republicans So Happy?

I was intrigued by an article by NPR correspondant Eric Weiner in the Washington Post (February 9, 2007), called “Why Republicans Are So Darn Happy.” Weiner also happens to be the author of the new book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World , in which he tried to figure out just what makes some people happier than others.

Here are excerpts from Weiner’s February 9 column:

“All of this cogitating about contentment (from social scientists) has revealed much about who’s supposedly happy and who isn’t, (but) no single morsel of happiness data, though, is more intriguing than this: Republicans are happier than Democrats. A 2006 Pew Research poll found that 45 percent of Republicans describe themselves as ‘very happy,’ compared with only 30 percent of Democrats (and 29 percent of independents). This is a sizable gap and a remarkably consistent one, too. . . .

“Is there something about being a card-carrying member of the GOP that induces a warm, fuzzy feeling, a sort of political Prozac? Or does the river of causality flow in the other direction: Are happy people more likely to become Republicans than Democrats? . . . (Even) poor Republicans are, on average, happier than poor Democrats, and wealthy Republicans are happier than wealthy Democrats. . .

“Basically, Republicans have in spades all the things that combine to make us happy. Church attendance is particularly crucial. People who attend religious services regularly are more likely to report being ‘very happy’ than those who don’t—43 percent vs. 26 percent (a happiness boost, by the way, that cuts across all the major religious denominations). In addition, Republicans are more likely to be married than Democrats, and married people are happier than singles.

“When I tell my liberal friends about Republican happiness, they usually reply angrily—angry not being a happy trait. ‘They’re just not paying attention,’ one friend snapped. ‘Ignorance is bliss,’ said another.  . . . Democrats are, on average, better educated (than Republicans) and that might explain their glumness. People with advanced degrees report being less happy than those with only a bachelor’s. . .

“There is something to be said for the under-examined life. . . Happy people remember events more rosily than they actually happened, while the morose remember the past accurately. If this isn’t depressing enough for liberals . . . once in power, Democrats tend to focus on issues that, according to the science of happiness, have little effect on our contentment—income equality, for instance, and racial diversity. Neither is linked to greater happiness. Countries with large disparities between rich and poor are no less happy than more egalitarian ones, studies have found. And the happiest countries in the world tend to be homogenous ones, such as Denmark and Iceland, not the ethnic melting pots that liberals celebrate.

“. . . For us, happiness is not a blessing but an expectation. And we expect it from our politicians. The more optimistic candidate won nine of the 10 elections from 1948 to 1984, according to Martin Seligman, the pooh-bah of the positive-psychology movement. This may explain why Republicans have dominated presidential elections in the past 40 or so years. They, of course, have as their happy standard-bearer Ronald Reagan, who smilingly urged us to ask ourselves if we were better off (read: happier) than we’d been four years earlier. . . . (Among Democrats) only Bill Clinton, with his ‘bridge to the 21st century’ and his ‘Third Way’ (part Democratic technocrat, part Republican mirth), managed to break through the happiness barrier. . .

“. . .  Perhaps optimistic candidates are elected because they’re able to weather setbacks during the grueling primary season. But there is also, of course, something about an optimistic candidate that voters find irresistible. Psychologists have found that we tend to like more positive people—no surprise there—so that might explain why we vote for the more optimistic candidate.

“. . . There is, though, an exception to the Happy Republicans trend. More Democrats than Republicans say they’re excited about the current election, and Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that the election season leaves them frustrated and bored. Might Democrats be on the verge of transforming themselves into the party of happiness? If so, that would be the ultimate flip-flop.”

Posted by judy @ 11:54 AM • (1) Comments  

Comments


That last paragraph is a bit outdated. <wink> But overall, I am a lot happier and optimistic than my liberal colleagues, so this makes sense to me.

 on  09/11  at  06:25 PM

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