According to this study in Psychological Science, by Jaime and Jost, conservatives really are happier than liberals–not only here but in ten other countries, even after controlling for religiosity, marital status, income, etc.

The authors theorized this might be because of liberals’ greater “need for cognition,” (Hey, liberals think more, didn’t you know?) but that turned out not to matter. What did matter for personal happiness is that liberals are more bothered by inequality than conservatives–which the authors describe a greater ”rationalization of inequality” by conservatives, rather than any ”excess of envy” by others.

Conservatives endorse more “meritocratic” beliefs. The authors interpret this to mean they engage in “systems justifications” that “buffer” the obviously nasty effects of observing inequality in society.

It could, of course, be much simpler: a large body of psychological research suggest that when people believe the locus of control is within themselves they are happier and mentally healthier than when they believe their fate is outside of their own control, (e.g. in the hands of The System.)

But I’m also reminded of another body of research on happiness–marital happiness: spouses who focus on fairness tend to be much more unhappy in their marriages than people who devote less energy to keeping close track of who exactly does how much and what.

Like Mom said: Life is unfair, get over it.

P.S. The National Science Foundation paid for this research.