![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
Conservatives report greater life satisfaction than liberals, but this relationship is relatively weak. To date, the evidence is limited to a narrow set of well-being measures that ask participants for a single assessment of their life in general. We address this shortcoming by examining the relationship between political orientation and well-being using measures of life satisfaction, affect, and meaning and purpose in life. Participants completed well-being measures after reflecting on their whole life (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2), at the end of their day (Study 3), and in the present moment (Study 4). Across five studies, conservatives reported greater meaning and purpose in life than liberals at each reporting period. This finding remained significant after adjusting for religiosity and was usually stronger than the relationships involving other well-being measures. Finally, meaning in life was more closely related to social conservatism than economic conservatism.
References
Section:
| Bauer, D. J., Preacher, K. J., Gil, K. M. (2006). Conceptualizing and testing random indirect effects and moderated mediation in multilevel models: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 11, 142–163. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.11.2.142 Google Scholar | |
| Baylor University. (2007). The Baylor Religion Survey, Wave II. Waco, TX: Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. Google Scholar | |
| Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 Google Scholar | |
| Feldman, S., Johnston, C. (2014). Understanding the determinants of political ideology: Implications of structural complexity. Political Psychology, 35, 337–358. Google Scholar, ISI | |
| Heintzelman, S. J., Trent, J., King, L. A. (2013). Encounters with objective coherence and the experience of meaning in life. Psychological Science, 24, 991–998. Google Scholar, SAGE Journals, ISI | |
| Hofmann, W., Wisneski, D. C., Brandt, M. J., Skitka, L. J. (2014). Morality in everyday life. Science, 345, 1340–1343. Google Scholar, Medline, ISI | |
| Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., Sulloway, F. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339–375. Google Scholar, Medline, ISI | |
| Kahneman, D. (1999). Objective happiness. In Kahneman, D., Deiner, E., Schwarz, N. (Eds.), Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 3–25). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. Google Scholar | |
| Kay, A. C., Laurin, K., Fitzsimons, G. M., Landau, M. J. (2014). A functional basis for structure-seeking: Exposure to structure promotes willingness to engage in motivated action. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 486–491. Google Scholar, Medline, ISI | |
| Kirkpatrick, L. A., Shillito, D. J., Kellas, S. L. (1999). Loneliness, social support, and perceived relationships with God. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 16, 513–522. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407599164006 Google Scholar | |
| Kreft, I. G. G., de Leeuw, J. (1998). Introducing multilevel modeling. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| MacKinnon, D. P., Krull, J. L., Lockwood, C. M. (2000). Equivalence of the mediation, confounding and suppression effect. Prevention Science, 1, 173–181. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026595011371 Google Scholar | |
| Napier, J. L., Jost, J. T. (2008). Why are conservatives happier than liberals? Psychological Science, 19, 565–572. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02124.x Google Scholar | |
| National Research Council. (2013). Subjective well-being: Measuring happiness, suffering, and other dimensions of experience. Panel on measuring subjective well-being in a policy relevant framework. In Stone, A. A., Mackie, C (Eds.), Committee on national statistics, division of behavioral and social sciences and education (pp. 29–30). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Google Scholar | |
| Newman, D. B., Nezlek, J. B., Thrash, T. M. (in press). The dynamics of searching for meaning and presence of meaning in daily life. Journal of Personality. Google Scholar | |
| Nezlek, J. B. (2005). Distinguishing affective and non-affective reactions to daily events. Journal of Personality, 73, 1539–1568. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00358.x Google Scholar | |
| Nezlek, J. B. (2012). Diary methods for personality and social psychology (Sage library of methods in social and personality psychology). London, England: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| Nezlek, J. B., Newman, D. B., Thrash, T. M. (2017). A daily diary study of relationships between feelings of gratitude and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12, 323–332. Google Scholar | |
| Onraet, E., Hiel, A. V., Dhont, K. (2013). The relationship between right-wing ideological attitudes and psychological well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213478199 Google Scholar | |
| Onraet, E., Van Assche, J., Roets, A., Haesevoets, T., Van Hiel, A. (2017). The happiness gap between conservatives and liberals depends on country-level threat: A worldwide multilevel study. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 11–19. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616662125 Google Scholar | |
| Preacher, K. J. (2015). Advances in mediation analysis: A survey and synthesis of new developments. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 825–852. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015258 Google Scholar | |
| Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. S., Congdon, R. (2011). HLM 7 for Windows [Computer software]. Skokie, IL: Scientific Software International. Google Scholar | |
| Robinson, M. D., Clore, G. L. (2002). Belief and feeling: Evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 934–960. Google Scholar, Medline, ISI | |
| Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141–166. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141 Google Scholar | |
| Schlenker, B. R., Chambers, J. R., Le, B. M. (2012). Conservatives are happier than liberals, but why? Political ideology, personality, and life satisfaction. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 127–146. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.12.009 Google Scholar | |
| Schwarz, N. (2012). Why researchers should think “real-time”: A cognitive rationale. In Mehl, M. R., Conner, T. S. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods for studying daily life (pp. 22–42). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Google Scholar | |
| Schwarz, N., Kahneman, D., Xu, J. (2009). Global and episodic reports of hedonic experience. In Belli, R., Alwin, D., Stafford, F. (Eds.), Using calendar and diary methods in life events research (pp. 157–174). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| Schwarz, N., Strack, F. (1999). Reports of subjective well-being: Judgmental processes and their methodological implications. In Kahneman, D., Diener, E., Schwarz, N. (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 61–84). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. Google Scholar | |
| Stavrova, O., Luhmann, M. (2016). Are conservatives happier than liberals? Not always and not everywhere. Journal of Research in Personality, 63, 29–35. Google Scholar, ISI | |
| Steger, M. F., Frazier, P. (2005). Meaning in life: One link in the chain from religiousness to well-being. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 574–582. Google Scholar, ISI | |
| Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80 Google Scholar | |
| Steptoe, A., Deaton, A., Stone, A. A. (2015). Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing. The Lancet, 385, 640–648. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61489-0 Google Scholar | |
| Taylor, P., Funk, C., Craighill, P. (2006). Are we happy yet? Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/AreWeHappy Google Scholar | |
| Tov, W., Lee, H. W. (2015). A closer look at the hedonics of everyday meaning and satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000081 Google Scholar | |
| Will, G. (2006). Smile if (and only if) you’re conservative. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022202012.html Google Scholar | |
| Wojcik, S. P., Hovasapian, A., Graham, J., Motyl, M., Ditto, P. H. (2015). Conservatives report, but liberals display, greater happiness. Science, 347, 1243–1246. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1260817 Google Scholar |
