An interesting piece of research

The academic authors of the research managed to twist something derogatory to conservatives out of it but see what you think:

Dr Wilson and Dr Storm restricted their study to white, Protestant teenagers, in order to eliminate confounding variables. However, their volunteers came from two different traditions-Pentecostal, which tends to the conservative, and Episcopalian, which tends to the liberal. The researchers conducted the study by giving each volunteer a beeper that went off every two hours or so. When it beeped, the volunteer answered a questionnaire about what he was doing at that moment, and how he felt about it.

Dr Wilson and Dr Storm found several unexpected differences between the groups. Liberal teenagers always felt more stress than conservatives, but were particularly stressed if they could not decide for themselves whom they spent time with. Such choice, or the lack of it, did not change conservative stress levels. Liberals were also loners, spending a quarter of their time on their own. Conservatives were alone for a sixth of the time. That may have been related to the fact that liberals were equally bored by their own company and that of others. Conservatives were far less bored when with other people. They also preferred the company of relatives to non-relatives. Liberals were indifferent. Perhaps most intriguingly, the more religious a liberal teenager claimed to be, the more he was willing to confront his parents with dissenting beliefs. The opposite was true for conservatives.

More here

Conservatives are happier: Check. Conservatives like people more: Check. Leftists are misfits: Check. Conservatives are more family-oriented: Check. Leftists are more disagreeable: Check

As Marginal Revolution notes, one of the authors above blogs on the Puffington Host. And does he huff and puff! It's marvellous what you can see in your data when you want to.

As far as I can ascertain, the research concerned has not been published in the academic journals and is based on an M.A. dissertation only. Quality stuff!


Posted by John Ray.