Why do proper folks say they’re happier? | EUROtoday

On May 30, 2025

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C ‘is a nicely -known refrain in political psychology: all of the size of opinion, the conservatives, in different phrases the precise -wing folks, seem happier and extra steady mentally than the progressives. In France, some research abound on this course. Thus, the Think Tank widespread future famous final February that it was the precise -wing voters (85 %) and the middle (88 %) who declare themselves most readily “rather happy”.

But it was within the United States that the query was dissected, crushed, screened tens of 1000’s of questionnaires, far past the easy survey of opinion. Result: for many years, surveys and research have been converging, the conservatives self-assess happier and higher psychological well being than the liberals.

“The question is not to know if it’s true, but why”

The phenomenon, little commented on in France, causes quite a lot of ink to move throughout the Atlantic. Editorialists and political psychologists of all stripes compete in hypotheses. The most blatant: proper -wing voters are, on common, rich, house owners, financially extra serene. So happier? Too easy. The variations in happiness persist, even at earnings, schooling, origin or equal age.

Arthur C. Brooks, professor at Harvard, slices within the New York Times : “The question is not to know if it’s true, but why. So you have to search on the side of life. The American conservatives cling to marriage, to religion, divorce less. “Marriage and happiness go hand in hand. If two people have similar demographic characteristics, but one is married and the other not, the married person will have 18 percentage points of more chance of saying very happy than the single person, “continues Arthur C. Brooks.

Basically, every thing could also be performed within the sense given to life. An unlimited research carried out in 16 nations by the University of Southern California and the University of Utah, revealed in 2018, reveals that conservatives extra typically declare that their existence has a that means. Five successive research, identical end result: the precise appears extra in peace with itself. The Atlantic Summarizes: “Liberals, on the other hand, often wonder why things do not go, why the life of some is less good than that of others. As soon as we start to question everything, the world loses its consistency. »»

Left voters more sensitive to world misery?

Another more cruel hypothesis: the conservatives would be less sensitive to the misery of others. “If they acknowledged injustice on the earth, they might not be as completely satisfied,” said some psychologists. Jaime Napier and John Jost, in Psychological Sciencenote: “The progressives could also be much less completely satisfied as a result of they’re ideologically much less ready to rationalize the diploma of inequality in society. “University jargon speaks of” justification of the system “.

The figures confirm: the conservatives see the liberalism and the meritocracy of a more optimistic eye, convinced that everyone can get out of it by dint of work. The progressives, they see more victims of circumstances, doubt the individual capacity to rise without the state. Arthur C. Brooks, based on a survey by the University of Syracuse, notes that 90 % of the conservatives believe that “exhausting work and perseverance usually overcome the disadvantages”. The progressives, even easy, are a less numerous third party to share this faith.

But a new reading key has just been proposed by a team of political psychologists: what if everything was only in the facade? “Conservatives can shallowness” mental health “on account of stigma round this time period,” they write. In other words, there is a chasm between what we declare and what we experience. “The conservatives understand psychological well being as a extra shameful topic, which pushes them to underline their difficulties,” they say.

Too modest conservatives

Researchers are no longer content to ask “Are you content?” “Or” Are you in good mental health? ». In their study, they sift through the responses of more than 20,000 Americans, and even the language of thousands of users on X. Verdict: if the conservatives say they are happier, their online language or in everyday life does not betray superior well-being. “Linguistic analyzes haven’t revealed important variations within the expression of optimistic feelings between conservatives and liberals,” say researchers.

But above all, the study points to a massive bias: the stigma of mental health in the conservatives. “Conservatives might be much less inclined to confess psychological well being issues on account of stronger stigma of this idea of their social group,” it is written. To test this idea, the researchers conducted a series of online experiences, involving more than 2,500 participants.

Read too Mental health: how “destigmatization” emerges in public debate
To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

The outcomes are closing. When you ask for a world evaluation, the conservatives say they’re in higher psychological well being. But as quickly as you enter the element – nervousness, melancholy, stress -, the hole is fading, and even disappears. “The differences between conservatives and liberals in the global self-assessment of mental health are largely reduced, even eliminated,” write Rife and his colleagues.

A determine slaps: of their first research, 38 % of the conservatives declare to have “no mental health problem”, in opposition to 25 % of the liberals. But on nervousness or disappointment, the charges are virtually equivalent (62 % and 65 %). The distinction would subsequently not relate to expertise, however to the will to confess.

https://www.lepoint.fr/eureka/pourquoi-les-gens-de-droite-se-disent-ils-plus-heureux-30-05-2025-2590874_4706.php