Who's winning ‘Happiness Wars’?

The Jewish World Review ^ | May 3, 2006 | Michael Medved

[beaversmom]

One study calls conservatives indecisive and inhibited. Another says liberals see more crises in the world and are pessimistic. The sweet spot might be in the middle.

In our bitterly polarized society, liberals and conservatives not only argue over the right approaches for public policy but also do battle over which ideology more reliably produces private happiness. The left recently embraced an academic study that says right-wingers were whiny kids who grew into insecure adults, while conservatives trumpeted surveys showing that it's self-identified liberals who count as self-pitying and pessimistic.

The latest salvo in the "Happiness Wars" came from the University of California at Berkeley, where psychologists Jack and Jeanne H. Block tracked a group of nursery school kids for 20 years. According to their analysis, children who expressed conservative opinions as young adults qualified at the age of 4 as "easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited and relatively over-controlled and vulnerable." They struck their preschool teachers as unhappy kids likely to develop troubled personalities. Sure enough, the Berkeley professors described the grown-up conservatives as "uncomfortable with uncertainty ... constricted in their behaviors, judging self against conformist norms, and moralistic," offering a stark contrast to their liberal schoolmates who became "vital, motivationally aware, perceptive, fluent, bright, with extensive and esthetic interests."

A skeptic might respond to these blatantly biased descriptions by arguing that any child from a conservative home growing up in leftist Berkeley might appropriately feel "fearful" and "vulnerable." Meanwhile, the suggestion that conservatives at any age count as less fulfilled than liberals flies in the face of several decades of statistical reports, including a paper by the non-partisan Pew Research Center.

[beaversmom]

Michael Medved ping--anyone want on or off this ping list, please send me an FR mail.

[pcottraux]

If I were only able to see myself as a victim and believed that there was no way to improve my life or make it better, and that any attempt at success would be hopeless and also victimize other people...then I would be a pretty miserable soul.

[beaversmom]

[wizardoz]

I have been both liberal and conservative: a knee-jerk leftie in my 20s, growing more conservative in my 30s till now, at 40, I am pretty much a Randian.

I'm happier with the world as a conservative, but my love life is a mess no matter what I am.

[Captainpaintball]

Who's winning ‘Happiness Wars’?

Dennis Prager is. Every Friday from 1-2PM EST. Everybody sing along!:

"It is the happy happy happy happy show ! Oh yes it is! It's the happy happy happy happy show! Hee hee hee!"

[beaversmom]

...but my love life is a mess no matter what I am.

You need to call Dr. Laura and let her give you the once over.

[beaversmom]

That music and his singing are both annoying and catchy.

[ran15]

I think the government just needs to set the foundation of a free society.. Then its up to the citizens using the tools of freedom.. like free association, free speech, property rights and so on, to figure out what makes them happy.

Everytime some utopian ideology takes over and tries to run people's lives for their own good.. the people seem down trodden. Whether that ideology is conservative like Mullah Iran, or liberal utopia like North Korea.

[William Terrell]

I'd say individuals are the only winners of the "happiness wars" when each moves ahead with his life. Political parties have nothing to do with it.

[wizardoz]

LOL... thanks, but when it comes to the heart, all advice is useless.

[ChEng]

Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be....Abe Lincoln

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I fear this study is biased!

[Dont Mention the War]

Beyond what Medved says in his piece, there's also the simple fact that nursery school teachers are not exactly qualified to decide which 4-year-olds are "likely to develop troubled personalities".

[highlander_UW]

According to their analysis, children who expressed conservative opinions as young adults qualified at the age of 4 as "easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited and relatively over-controlled and vulnerable."

Then the democrats better begin to shake in their boots...this sounds like exactly the sort of children they're creating in public schools.

Sure enough, the Berkeley professors described the grown-up conservatives as "uncomfortable with uncertainty ... constricted in their behaviors, judging self against conformist norms, and moralistic," offering a stark contrast to their liberal schoolmates who became "vital, motivationally aware, perceptive, fluent, bright, with extensive and esthetic interests."

Good grief! Are there more than 3 people on the face of the planet that actually think "Berkley professors" are objective analysts here?

And where are they hiding all the aware, perceptive, bright liberals? I live in a blue state and still don't find any that qualify to this description!

[Tax-chick]

I'm happy! I lost 4 lbs. last week!

[Psycho_Bunny]

I live and work in downtown Seattle.

So far from "vital, motivationally aware, perceptive, fluent, bright, with extensive and esthetic interests", I would describe the average liberal here as "angry, utterly ignorant, manipulative and vitriolic."