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Do conservatives really have better mental well-being than liberals?
Brian F Schaffner1, Thomas Hershewe1, Zoe Kava2
1Department of Political Science/Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Plos One
|April 30, 2025
Summary
American conservatives report better mental health than liberals. This gap narrows when considering mood instead of mental health, suggesting stigma may influence self-reports.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Political Science
Background:
- A notable ideological divide exists in self-reported mental health within the United States.
- Conservatives often report higher mental health than liberals, potentially due to justifying societal inequalities or higher scores on well-being associated traits like religiosity and patriotism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ideological mental health gap by examining its persistence across different well-being facets.
- To explore the role of stigma associated with the term "mental health" in politicized contexts.
Main Methods:
- Statistical analysis controlling for demographics, socioeconomic factors, and life experiences.
- An experimental design comparing self-assessments of "mental health" versus "overall mood" between ideological groups.
Main Results:
- Controlling for various factors reduced the ideological gap in mental health self-reports by approximately 40%, yet ideology remained a significant predictor.
- An experimental manipulation eliminated the gap when participants reported on "overall mood" instead of "mental health," indicating potential inflation of mental health ratings due to stigma.
Conclusions:
- The ideological divide in mental health self-assessments is partially explained by demographics and life experiences, but not entirely eliminated.
- The politicization and stigma surrounding the term "mental health" may contribute to inflated self-ratings among conservatives, masking a genuine well-being difference or highlighting a nuanced ideological impact on specific well-being aspects.
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