Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals in the U.S.? Comparing System Justification and Psychological Adjustment Explanations

Why are conservatives in the U.S. more satisfied with their lives than liberals? Prior work suggests two competing models based in system justification and psychological adjustment. The present study builds on this work by providing additional tests of these two competing models from a social axioms perspective. Results from 608 participants across 5 samples, including both college and national community samples, revealed evidence for both system justification and psychological adjustment models. Consistent with system justification models, the system justification scale was a mediator of the conservatism-life satisfaction relationship. Consistent with psychological adjustment models, both social axioms studied (reward for application and religiosity) were also significant mediators. Further analyses were less favorable to the system justification model. One of the key measurements of system justification of group inequality, social dominance orientation, did not mediate the conservatism-satisfaction relationship at all. Further, the strongest mediators in the dataset were two corollaries of reward for application: Anti-entitlement and perceptions of attained achievement. Taken as a whole, these results suggest, consistent with prior research, that while system justification plays a role in conservative happiness, conservatives are also happier because they believe hard work leads to good results (and as a result, feel they have attained more achievement), and because they are more religious.