Happiness Quotients

Arthur Brooks, the same one who wrote about conservatives being markedly more generous than liberals [covered here], wrote a piece this week comparing the relative happiness of conservatives and liberals. The data, he says, is consistent over decades, so we know this: conservatives are more likely to consider themselves very happy than liberals are. Also, from either end, those who feel strongly about their beliefs are more likely to consider themselves very happy than those in the moderate middle.

We know the what. We can speculate on the why. And if we could identify causation, we could then recommend a “how to” for being happy—or at least as happy as you personally can be.

Some of the factors coincide with what we know about civilization. Here Brooks addresses some of the “whys” of conservative happiness:

Many conservatives favor an explanation focusing on lifestyle differences, such as marriage and faith. They note that most conservatives are married; most liberals are not. (The percentages are 53 percent to 33 percent, according to my calculations using data from the 2004 General Social Survey, and almost none of the gap is due to the fact that liberals tend to be younger than conservatives.) Marriage and happiness go together. If two people are demographically the same but one is married and the other is not, the married person will be 18 percentage points more likely to say he or she is very happy than the unmarried person.

The story on religion is much the same. According to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, conservatives who practice a faith outnumber religious liberals in America nearly four to one. And the link to happiness? You guessed it. Religious participants are nearly twice as likely to say they are very happy about their lives as are secularists (43 percent to 23 percent). The differences don’t depend on education, race, sex or age; the happiness difference exists even when you account for income.

Whether religion and marriage should make people happy is a question you have to answer for yourself. But consider this: Fifty-two percent of married, religious, politically conservative people (with kids) are very happy—versus only 14 percent of single, secular, liberal people without kids. [Emphases mine.]

So, how about these steps as a how-to:

·         Be religious; connect with God and with a worship community.

·         While you’re at church, make connections that will lead to a happy marriage with a like-minded religious person.

·         Then have family and raise them with religion and religious principles in the home.

·         Favor freedom combined with personal responsibility rather than submission to centralized control.

And then there’s the mistaken notion about extremes:

People at the extremes are happier than political moderates. Correcting for income, education, age, race, family situation and religion, the happiest Americans are those who say they are either “extremely conservative” (48 percent very happy) or “extremely liberal” (35 percent). Everyone else is less happy, with the nadir at dead-center “moderate” (26 percent).

Again, we have to speculate on the “whys.” But my guess is that what is being described as “extreme” is actually “engaged.” It feels better to be doing something, taking action, being part of a solution, than to be silently acted upon. Even if you’re wrong. Although, if you follow the steps above, then you’re much more likely to be making the choices that lead to thriving civilization.

At Spherical Model, we list this formula for civilization:

1. Not all religious societies are civilized (according to my definition), but every civilized society is a religious society. This absolutely does not mean state-sponsored religion or lack of religious freedom; in fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of religion is essential, and the flourishing of religion in general must be encouraged.The family is the basic unit of civilized society. Whatever threatens the family threatens civilization. So preserving and protecting the family is paramount in laws and social expectations in a civilized society.

Under #1, whatever the religion, the civilizing influences will include these requirements:

• Honor God
• Honor parents
• Do not murder (take innocent life)
• Do not have sex outside of marriage
• Do not steal
• Do not lie
• Do not covet (want what belongs to your neighbor)

All of #2 actually fits within these rules. But I believe we need #2 to specifically describe how the civilizing principles get passed along from generation to generation. 

And civilization is worth passing along. According to the Spherical Model, Civilization lookslike this:

Families typically remain intact, and children are raised in loving homes, with caring parents who guide their education and training, dedicating somewhere between 18 and 25 years for that child to reach adulthood, and who then remain interested in their children’s success for the rest of their lives. 

Civilized people live peaceably among their neighbors, helping rather than taking advantage of one another, abiding by laws enacted to protect property and safety—with honesty and honor. Civilized people live in peace with other civilized people; countries and cultures coexist in appreciation, without fear. 

There is a thriving free-enterprise economy. Poverty is meaningless; even though there will always be a lowest earning 10% defined as poor, in a civilized society these lowest earners have comfortable shelter and adequate food and clothing—and there’s the possibility of rising, or at least for future generations to rise. 

Creativity abounds; enlightening arts and literature exceed expectations. Architecture and infrastructure improve; innovation and invention are the rule. 

People feel free to choose their work, their home, their family practices, their friendships and associations. And they generally self-restrain before they infringe on the rights and freedoms of others. Where there are questions about those limits, laws are in place to help clarify boundaries of civilized behavior. When someone willingly infringes on the rights or safety of another, the law functions to protect that victim as well as society from further uncivilized behavior from the offender. 

To those of us who have seen civilization, at least in pockets of time and place, this doesn’t seem all that foreign or far-fetched. We’ve seen it in practice. We’ve seen it work. We’ve experienced the general sense of happiness that comes from living in a civilized society. No wonder we’re happy to choose this rather than the experimental, consistently failing, state-control systems offered as the alternative. Dependence doesn’t bring happiness the way success does.