Liberals may have the edge on happiness

[lovemydog]

This article is quite interesting to me. We've heard that self-proclaimed conservatives are more happy. Those earlier studies are only from self-reporting. It could reflect conservatives' efforts at impression management rather than happiness. I much prefer hanging out with liberals. They're more empathetic & compassionate. Plus they have a much better sense of humor! Here's the article:

Liberals may have the edge on happiness
By Erica Goode
The New York Times

The existence of a so-called ideological happiness gap is so well established that recently social scientists have mostly tried to explain it. But a new series of studies questions the gap itself, raising the possibility that although conservatives may report greater happiness than liberals, they are no more likely to act in ways that indicate that they really are happier.

“If it’s real happiness, it should show up in people’s behavior,” said Peter Ditto, a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine, and an author of an article about the studies, which were led by Sean Wojcik, a doctoral candidate at the university. “What our evidence suggests is that it’s limited to self-reports of subjective well-being,” Ditto said. The article appears in the March 13 issue of the journal Science. In fact, when behaviors rather than self-reports were examined, liberals seemed to have a small but statistically significant happiness edge.

The researchers examined two behaviors linked to happiness: smiling and using positive language. For their subject pool, they chose large groups whose political leanings could be identified with some reliability, including members of Congress and users of Twitter and LinkedIn.
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more here: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/liberals-may-have-the-edge-on-happiness/article_363bc15c-421a-5cb1-8b48-0f2c3af148aa.html

[MrMickeysMom]

1. What's with all this targeted good behavior?

Don't you know stone throwing is what sells K&Rs???

[lovemydog]

3. I am outraged!

It's despicable and egregious!

Is that a little better?

It's funny, I love drama but I don't like being in the middle of it.

Hope you're enjoying a nice weekend.

[Matrosov]

2. Naturally

Liberals are about tolerance and understanding, conservatives about hate and destruction.

[lovemydog]

4. Yup.

I find it really funny also that conservatives tend to self-report in an exaggerated manner. To me that shows some repression going on, which isn't healthy.