Conservatives Report Better Mental Health Than Liberals

 

The common theme behind progressives' rants on social media and the protests against President Donald Trump is that life is unfair and it's the government's job to make them happy.

On June 18, statistician and political analyst Nate Silver presented a detailed analysis of the 2022 Cooperative Election Study, which surveyed 60,000 Americans. Silver concluded that the survey shows that conservatives outnumber liberals 51% to 20% among people who report excellent mental health. And liberals outnumber conservatives 45% to 19% among voters who say they have poor mental health.

Silver found that the liberal-conservative mental health gap is fairly consistent across multiple demographics, including gender, race, age, education and income.

Here are some key findings from Silver's analysis:

• Conservative women report considerably higher levels of happiness than liberal men.

• Black liberals are significantly happier than white liberals.

• Bisexual liberals report the lowest happiness level of any demographic.

• Gay and lesbian conservatives report being happier more often than heterosexual liberals.

• Low-income conservatives, with annual household incomes of $30,000 or less, are happier than liberals at the same income level. Those low-income conservatives even report the same mental health levels as liberals making six figures.

• Conservatives with post-graduate education report the highest happiness of any demographic.

The research raises an important question about correlation and causation: Am I happier because I'm a conservative, or am I a conservative because I'm happier?

Social psychologist Jaime Napier has looked into that question. Her answer: "One of the biggest correlates with happiness in our surveys was the belief of a meritocracy, which is the belief that anybody who works hard can make it. That was the biggest predictor of happiness. That was also one of the biggest predictors of political ideology. So, the conservatives were much higher on these meritocratic beliefs than liberals were."

That makes sense to me. Conservatism emphasizes personal responsibility, liberty, limited government and human dignity. Meritocracy, the idea that if you work hard you can achieve success no matter your background, is embedded in those values.

I'm not sure liberals these days can agree on their core beliefs, but their mindset that government, universities and other institutions must balance the scales through affirmative action, diversity and other top-down actions is the opposite of meritocracy.

The common theme behind progressives' rants on social media and the protests against Trump is that life is unfair and that it's the government's job to make them happy. But government can't really deliver on that expectation, no matter how many handouts progressive politicians promise.

So guess what happens when progressives don't get what they think they are owed by our government? They get angry. And they feel sad, betrayed, and unhappy.

Conservatives like me, in contrast, don't expect government to satisfy all of our needs and desires. We're busy working hard, raising our families, going to church, and doing all the other things that make us − you know ‒ happy.

by Nicole Russell at usatoday.com on June 24, 2025