Conservatives are just plain mean

And happy about it.

'Science' sez it's true and so it must be:

Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

If your beliefs don't justify gaps in status, you could be left frustrated and disheartened, according to the researchers, Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University. They conducted a U.S.-centric survey and a more internationally focused one to arrive at the findings.

"Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives," the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science, "apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light."

The results support and further explain a Pew Research Center survey from 2006, in which 47 percent of conservative Republicans in the U.S. described themselves as "very happy," while only 28 percent of liberal Democrats indicated such cheer.

The same rationalizing phenomena could apply to personal situations as well.

"There is no reason to think that the effects we have identified here are unique to economic forms of inequality," the researchers write. "Research suggests that highly egalitarian women are less happy in their marriages compared with their more traditional counterparts, apparently because they are more troubled by disparities in domestic labor."

The current study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

There you have it. 

And to add to the scientific substantiation, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence on display by simply perusing my Religious Left blogroll.  Those folks seem seriously unable to rationalize away inequality and seem so guilt-ridden, dare I say unhappy, about it.  In fact, I'd say the only way they'd become happier is if all of us were equally as unhappy and miserable as they are.

H/T to Ace of Spades who concludes brilliantly:

When a difference between conservatives and liberals is found, a very unsupportable value judgment is read into that difference, and the conservative tendency is described unscientifically as base and inferior, while the liberal tendency is described unscientifically as elevated and superior. They never quite get around to providing the data set to prove that; it's assumed.  And everyone knows in science you're allowed to assume all the unsupported moral judgments you like. 

So here we go again. Conservatives are found to be, as was of course expected, to be not as bothered by income inequality as liberals. That part of the study is well supported, but rather obvious and hardly worthy of a headline; it's not like we didn't know liberals pretend to be all worried about income inequality as they sip their lattes and drive their Volvos while not giving to charity.

But the social "scientists" here decide, by fiat, that a liberal-level of pretend-concern about income inequality is the "right" level of such concern and, ergo, any deviation from that is "wrong."

Of course.  Seems rationally equitable.

Comments

[scrapiron]

How could a liberal possibly be happy. They are ate up with BDS and a great number of them have comitted treason because of the BDS. When President Bush returns to Tx they will still suffer the mental illness they have aquired for themselves.
The 9-11 attack basically destroyed America. Half of the population has assisted the enemy simply because their political leaders and the Lame Stream Media told them to. Any time you hear someone say that electing McCain is a third Bush term, back away from them fast. That is a sure sign of criminal insanity since the only two things McCain has ever agreed with Bush on is the war and immigration of criminals for Mexico. CNN says it's so (McCain is a Bush third term), so the liberals have all let it soak into their weak minds. They won't ever have another happy day in their lives. I suggest they depart this world at their own hand and save the medical community (taxpayer funded) a lot of money.

[tim]

Hell, “there's plenty of anecdotal evidence on display” occasionally here form the likes of a certain Canadian, pot smoking, professor of poo slinging & a newly reacquainted blowhard with supposed various master degrees in BS and name calling. Their unhappiness couldn’t be anymore evident short of hitting one on the head with it.

I’d rather be wrong on ever freakin’ issue than be miserable like them.

And I'll second scrapion's last sentence. Though successful suicide takes at least some thought and a little bit of intestinal fortitude, which they sorely lack.