Sad Wittle Wiberals

According to a study by psychologists at New York University, people who call themselves conservatives are happier than people who call themselves liberals. From Readers Digest:

“[C]onservatives are less upset by inequality because they believe people generally get what they deserve in life.”

“Jaime Napier and John Jost gave questionnaires to over a thousand Americans and found that conservatives were happier than liberals even after controlling for the possible influence of demographic differences, such as in wealth and religiosity. Crucially, they found that at least some of the difference in happiness was explained by the conservatives being less bothered by inequality.”

It’s all very interesting—and fun to try to reconcile with some compelling conservative interpretations of Batman—but did we really need a scientific study to confirm that sensitive people are less happy than those who ignore the plight of others? Haven’t liberals been known as “bleeding hearts” for years? They sure have—because others’ hearts are literally bleeding…like in Georgia.

If this whole thing seems overly reductive, then how does this rub you? Liberals are more creative than conservatives. Paging David Mamet to the blog.