How moderates and extremists find happiness: Ideological orientation, citizen–government proximity, and life satisfaction

Abstract

While the topic of life satisfaction and its determinants has drawn increasing attention among political scientists, most studies have focused mainly on macro-level variables, and often overlooked the role of individuals’ attitudes vis-à-vis their governments. The present article attempts to fill this gap by examining whether citizens’ left–right self-placement and ideological distance from their governments exert an independent effect on life satisfaction. Utilizing a dataset spanning a quarter century and containing nearly 70,000 respondents, we demonstrate a curvilinear relationship between ideological orientations and happiness, with self-identified radicals on both ends of the spectrum happier than moderate citizens. Moreover, we show that while propinquity between self-position and government position contributes to happiness, this effect is highly mediated by individual locations along the left–right spectrum: centrists report higher levels of happiness the closer they are to their government, while the opposite is true for radicals. The normative implication of our findings is that moderate governments may present a comparative advantage in enhancing the overall level of happiness of their citizens.

Political Extremity, Social Media Use, Social Support, and Well-Being for Emerging Adults During the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign

“…The emerging adults in our sample who had greater political extremity may have benefited from the psychological resources of political group membership, and these benefits may have manifested in greater SWB, especially in the face of divisive rhetoric during the election. These positive associations between political extremity and SWB are also consistent with existing literature (e.g., Curini, Jou, & Memoli, 2014).…”

Are virtuous people happier? Evidence from Italy

“…Using ordered Probit models to model the ordered responses on the level of happiness we provide novel and robust empirical evidence that the most intense attitudes, i.e., pure selfish and pure prosocial ones, are positively correlated with happiness suggesting that extreme views, in one direction or the other, are positively associated to happiness. Our results parallel recent findings by Curini et al (2014) and Jackson (2019) in the political science literature who find a U-shaped relationship between happiness and political views so that individuals with more radical opinions are significantly happier than the others.…”

“…However, it is noticeable that similar results have been found in the political science literature. Using data from the WVS (1980-2005 waves), Curini et al (2014) find a Ushaped relationship between happiness and political views with individuals with more radical opinions significantly happier than the others. For the US, Jackson (2019) provides empirical evidence from survey data from GSS that individuals with extremely conservative or liberal political views are happier than those with moderate or intermediate views.…”

The conditional impact of winner/loser status and ideological proximity on citizen participation

“…This has become an important concept in the study of political representation (Golder & Stramski 2010;Huber & Powell 1994;McDonald et al 2004), with the aim of identifying factors that facilitate congruence. Some recent works have also explored possible consequences of congruence (Curini et al 2012(Curini et al , 2014Ezrow & Xezonakis 2011;Mayne & Hakhverdian 2016). We extent this line of literature by showing that ideological proximity can exert some influence on political engagement.…”

“…Some recent works have also explored possible consequences of congruence (Curini et al. , , ; Ezrow & Xezonakis ; Mayne & Hakhverdian ). We extent this line of literature by showing that ideological proximity can exert some influence on political engagement.…”