Contributor #4

From Gross National Happiness:

"For many academics, there is really no need to explain the link between political affiliation and happiness because it is so obvious. . . In my world, we all just knew liberals were happiest. . . After all, I rarely met conservatives, much less talked with them about their happiness.

"On a lark, I decided to glance at the survey data - something the theorists didn't ever seem to do for some reason - and see who was really happier.  And, lo and behold, it quickly emerged that I had been wrong all this time.   In fact, it is political conservatives who take the happiness prize, hands down. . ."

This is based on survey data from the General Social Survey results 1974-2004.

"Conservatives are happier than liberals, a fact you may celebrate or regret.  My own reaction to this fact is primarily one of surprise, because virtually everything about the politics of happiness turns out to be at variance with elite intellectual opinion and what I always thought.  But the evidence is the evidence."