Studies show liberals are more mentally ill than conservatives

Multiple studies in psychology and epidemiology suggest that self-identified liberals report higher rates of depression, anxiety, and lower life satisfaction than conservatives. For instance, a Columbia University study examining more than 86,000 U.S. high-school seniors over 13 years found that depression rates have been increasing for all adolescents, but the increase is sharpest among liberal-identifying students, particularly liberal girls (magazine.columbia.edu, 2024). Likewise, research in Social Psychological and Personality Science demonstrates that conservatives report a higher sense of meaning and purpose in life than liberals—even after controlling for religious belief (dornsife.usc.edu, 2019).

A large comparative study across 92 countries and 200,000 respondents showed that conservatives generally rate their life satisfaction more positively than liberals, particularly when living in societies with more conservative cultural norms (phys.org, 2016). In “Conservatives Are Happier than Liberals: The Mediating Role of Perceived Goal Progress and Flow Experience,” a U.S. sample study revealed that conservatives tend to feel greater subjective well-being, in part because they perceive more goal progress and experience flow, especially under stressful or threatening conditions (link.springer.com, 2020).

Real life examples also illustrate the pattern. Many liberal activists and thinkers are deeply attuned to generate chronic stress, moral distress, and rumination. By contrast, conservative individuals often draw strength from more stable institutions—religion, family, traditions—and tend to find meaning in continuity, order, and communal belonging.

Of course, these findings do not imply that all or most liberals suffer mental illness, nor that conservatives are immune; there are many countervailing factors. But the data supports the claim that, on average, liberals have more mental health challenges and lower subjective well-being compared to conservatives.

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Kwek00 · 41-45, M

Why are the causes of these phenomena not talked about here? You don't think it's important...

Like Columbia university, also reported:

American adults who identify as politically liberal have long reported lower levels of happiness and psychological well-being than conservatives, a trend that mental-health experts suspect is at least partly explained by liberals’ tendency to spend more time worrying about stress-inducing topics like racial injustice, income inequality, gun violence, and climate change.

Now a team of Columbia epidemiologists has found evidence that the same pattern holds for American teenagers. The researchers analyzed surveys collected from more than eighty-six thousand twelfth graders over a thirteen-year period and discovered that while rates of depression have been rising among students of all political persuasions and demographics, they have been increasing most sharply among progressive students — and especially among liberal girls from low-income families.

SOURCE: https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/why-depression-rates-are-higher-among-liberals

Makes you wonder what needs to fall under "mentally ill" actually? Is it worrying about things that go wrong in society? Or is it apathy that conserves those ills, that keep making victims and opresses groups in society and stresses those people that care about these things?

If the dominant ideology in society is rather conservative, adherents of a conservative ideology tend to be happier than liberals. With decreasing social conservatism, the conservatives tended to forfeit their "satisfaction advantage." In the studies, the scientists used the data of 200,000 survey respondents from the USA and 92 countries around the world. The results of the studies will be published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Volume 63, August 2016, Pages 29-35).

[...] The World Values Survey is compiled by an international network of political and social scientists. For the United States, the researchers concluded that the correlation between a person's individual political attitude and happiness is stronger in those years in which this political attitude is broadly accepted and widespread - conservative Americans were at their happiest when the overall political climate was rather conservative. In those years in which a more liberal climate prevailed, they were not generally happier than liberals. This explains the fluctuations that can be observed for the United States over the past 40 years. "In 2004, when the climate was decidedly conservative, there was a particularly strong correlation. In that year, life satisfaction was very high among conservatives," says Stavrova. Similar phenomena can be observed around the world. Generally, conservatives are happier than non-conservatives. However, "that is mostly the case in conservative countries. In liberal countries, they do not have any advantage." In Germany, there is hardly any correlation between political ideology and life satisfaction.

It is mostly conservatives who are influenced by their environment. No such correlation was discernible in for people with a liberal attitude. In this context, the researchers noted that all the characteristics facilitating life satisfaction, for example religiosity or personality, help an individual attain popularity and respect in society." In this regard, conservatives feel better. They have better relationships with others, feel understood and validated in their views."

Scientists call this the "person-culture fit" -- the individual "fits" into his or her environment. "We believe this to be at the heart of our results. It is nothing intrinsic to the conservative ideology," Stavrova argues. "For conservatives, social belonging seems to matter a great deal. Liberals are more autonomous."

SOURCE: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/517888

🙄 That might be the reason why a segment of Americans lost their mind when a black guy suddenly got into the white house... some of these people never recovered.

Considering you didn't provide any source... I can't know for sure. But I think these are the same people that were involved in the studies you cite. But I guess your reading stopped after you were able to paste the label "mentally ill" on "liberals"... because your post doesn't really care about the reasons or nuances behind those studies you cite.

FreddieUK · 70-79, M

@Kwek00 That was not too long to read and I found it very helpful to see the whole context. It makes complete sense.

Kwek00 · 41-45, M

@FreddieUK Well, there might be more reasons... these are just the first things you pop into when you actually use the main posts text to do a search to find the original studies. Because sourcing studies is apperently really hard.