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Gallup: Republicans report better mental health than others
Okay, I’ll admit it: I am so loving this:
Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats.
This finding holds true even when controlling for other variables such as age, education, gender, and income. Under the subhead, “What are the implications of these findings?” Gallup reports:
The reason the relationship exists between being a Republican and more positive mental health is unknown, and one cannot say whether something about being a Republican causes a person to be more mentally healthy, or whether something about being mentally healthy causes a person to choose to become a Republican.
I think it’s both. 
The findings are discussed in detail here.
back to top63 Comments to “Gallup: Republicans report better mental health than others”
Personally I think it’s because now that we’ve got Ron Paul running on the GOP ticket, there’s reason to be mentally healthy again!
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Or perhaps it’s all just Bush’s fault.
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I wonder if the number of Christians within the party—a group with several positive mental features such as general happiness with life, longevity/satisfaction in marriage, good health and a positive outlook on life—is having any affect on those numbers?
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Maybe it’s because Republicans are challenged more often? –I don’t know if that’s true in general or not. It’s definitely true at a public university. Being challenged and asked to explain is good for your mental health.
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Well, there is no doubt that we Democrats are crazy. So back off!!
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Remember – the headline/article states that we report better mental health (it does not state that any independet/objective testing was done so as to establish that this is not an issue of differing perspective).
I would not be unduly surprised if it were true (a lack of absolutes and a materialistic mindset has to be depressing and anxiety producing for the leftists after all), but this isn’t evidence of it.
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I think because most are white and straight and don’t have to deal with the stress of racism and discrimination.
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Yes, perhaps the Republicans are just deluded into thinking they’re A-OK. They could be crazy and not even know it.
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What I find humorous about this is that the people are self describing their mental health. Crazy people don’t think they are crazy! For example, in our extended family there are two right-wing nut jobs who would say they are in great mental health. The rest of the family would say exactly the opposite about these mean, manipulative, vengeful people with serious undiagnosed neurosis. So would people who have to deal with them day to day. This couple literally has no friends because they are so insane.
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Well, we rednecks are stressed out plenty working to pay taxes for all the “victims” out there and their programs, while at the same time trying to feed, clothe and educate our families, so by that time the stress level probably all comes out about even.
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Hamachitwo,
Sounds like your family has a positive and healthy perception of itself and of your various members. Tell me, do you spend much time at family gatherings diagnosing/discovering each other’s various neurosis’s? I understand such activities can leave one with an inflated sense of personal satisfaction about himself.
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Those who are mentally fit, tend to be content with what God has given them.
Believers are more apt to trust in the LORD, and His Will for their lives – where those who aren’t Believers believe they are able to do whatever they want, whether it lines up with Scripture or not. That doesn’t make for contentment, which is very important to mental health.
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Lynn,
Somehow I can see you jumping up and down at your computer, all GLEEFUL after writing “Okay, I’ll admit it: I am so loving this:”
LOL, you are a bad girl! Please be advised: That was a joke, not a personal attack -
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Hmmm…Was just over at Drudge. There’s a hostage drama at the Clinton camp. The perp has a history of mental illness…
Just goes to show ya…
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Rond, actually we don’t. We catch up after the event, of which there is one this Saturday with about 30 of us. No one I have spoken with this week is looking forward to it because the nut-job pair are coming. It’s pretty bad. But, of course this pair would describe themselves as mentally great. LOL!
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Nuf said.
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Yep, Socialists are insane and they are just miserable about it too :-0
told ya.
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MIM,
Do you suppose he might just be a Republican?
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Yes, Bianca, we rednecks are to some extent stressed working hard paying for all the pretended “victims” out there though somehow through good sense and faith most conservatives manage to get ahead and enjoy life. Any study as to who really pays taxes makes this abundantly clear. Religion, of course, often helps, much to the disgust of fanatic Darwinists.
What really goes down is that the liberals are frustrated that the evil capitalists rule the world, while in truth capital investment, which supports companies and hard workers who get ahead with decent pay and their own retirement investments. Also, many normal people go to church on Sunday, worship Christ, the resurrected Son of God, and, in the afternoon root for their favorite ball team, much to the disgust of depressesd liberals who pine away for various political utopias.
Most depressing of late for the liberals is that Bush bids fair to be over time the liberator of Iraq and possibly even the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. Oh, the injustice that this evil president has nmight have wreaked some good.
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i believe Pres. bush would rate his mental health as excellent as well. Just because you say it is don’t make it so. most crazy people dont know or admit they are crazy.
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Good point, Fusion. Bush would undoubtedly rate his mental health as excellent.
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I think it’s because democrats are just more trendy than republican’s are.
Having mental health issues is so IN!
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Peter Leavitt: you know I agree with you on Bush. We just need some distance.
I find President Bush remarkably well-adjusted. Anyone who has retained his sense of humor and still laugh after all the vicious attacks from the left in the last few years has got to be a very strong, and dare I say it, secure, individual. I give him credit.
Republicans are more in touch with reality. They don’t go around saying black is white, wrong is right the way Dems do.
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Victoria, you seem to jump at the conclusion that all republicans are Christians”. But see here (I quote from the article): “an analysis of the relationship between party identification and self-reported excellent mental health within various categories of age, gender, church attendance, income, education, and other variables shows that the basic pattern persists regardless of these characteristics.”
“being a Republican appears to have an independent relationship on positive mental health above and beyond what can be explained by these types of demographic and lifestyle variables.”
The correlation was not explained by church attendance.
I would agree that contentment seems conducive to good menatal health. Are Republicans more content?
Just a question
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Of course attending church and being a christain is not necessarily the same
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Ikke – 24
Ikke, you post:………“Victoria, you seem to jump at the conclusion that all republicans are Christians”.
I didn’t jump to conclusions at all, however, I did make a statement about those who were Believers and mental health – Please NOTE: I did not mention Republican’s in my post number 12 –
I don’t know that ALL Republican’s are Christians, how would I know that? I believe that most Born Again Christians are Republican’s, but those are two different issues -
Ikke, YOU ASK……”I would agree that contentment seems conducive to good menatal health. Are Republicans more content?”
I don’t know about ALL Republicans, ….. what I do believe is that Believers are more content with their lives than none Believers!
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I am selling stocks short next week for sure.
Whatever the people here are that sure about, bet the opposite.
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Does anyone think the crazy guy wearing explosives and taking women and children as hostages today at Senator Clinton’s New Hampshire Campaign office was an over the top supporter in search of an autograph?
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See, there is a big difference in how people view themselves, and how trained professionals view their behavior.
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday August 13, 2003
The Guardian
A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in “fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity”.
As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report’s four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.
All of them “preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality”.
The authors also peer into the psyche of President George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case. The telltale signs are his preference for moral certainty and frequently expressed dislike of nuance.
“This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes,” the authors argue in the Psychological Bulletin.
One of the psychologists behind the study, Jack Glaser, said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for “closure” could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
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HamachiTwo
You are amazing, and you took the time to bring this piece of ‘whatever’ to SHARE? What a guy, LOL
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Here is a link to the study:
Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hannahk/bulletin.pdf
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Victoria, I always share. I’m a liberal conservative. Check out the study.
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HamachiTwo
Maybe some other time -
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LOn Chainey, #29, this is a well known “progressive” academic ploy. Unable to confront conservative arguments directly, these scholarly folk try to destroy them through psychologizing. As I remember it, you got thrown off this blog for similar foolishness in accusing your conservative interlocutors of being mentally deranged. The book to read on this is The Triumph of the Therapeutic by the late Philip Rieff
These psychologizing arguments are mere sugar coating of rather vicious intellectual positions, the sort of thing that happens when radical liberal academics perceive that their side is losing the cultural war to the evil conservatives and “religionists.” That such a one as you would regurgitate such academic sophistry is hardly surprising.
I should suggest that you go away, as requested, from this blog, and take a breather.
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LOL! Fuh-neee. A poll of how people self-describe their mental health is authoritative enough for the blog if Republicans say they are healthy, but an actual study by professionals in the mental health field is dismissed. On in Conserva–la-la-land
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I think that Galadriel has a point in #4
Conservatives are challenged on their positions to such an extent, we already know our defenses by heart.
We don’t have to spend a lot of time pondering ways to explain how 2+2=5.
There’s really no need for conservatives to ponder things that are obvious.
We understand economies better. We’re more informed on world affairs, better at keeping up with current events. We have a naturally inquisitive mind, which leads to a larger knowledge base. We’re not surprised at things that can happen, because we usually saw it coming.
Take that!
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Cousin Peter Leavitt, please dispense with the name calling and codswallop.
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LOL! I love you, Mr. Meaner. In a brotherly way, of course.
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Right back atcha HAMACHI
I feel warm and fuzzy, now
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The key to this poll is the excellent/good distinction. Just what the difference may be between these two degrees of mental health may have more to do with your career in sales than with your mental state. But if you lump together the people who feel excellent with the people who feel good, the party differences appear to be far less dramatic. The real shocker in the survey is the extreme reluctance of Republicans to report “fair or poor” mental health. Does anyone truly believe that only 7% of Republicans drink too much or are overweight, or have premature heart disease, or are in marriage status transition, or take SSRI’s? Look, at least 2-4% of Republicans are gay, and how healthy can they be? Throw in another 9% who are African Americans and you realize these people are in denial.
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“I’m a liberal conservative. Check out the study”
See, you’re a wacky guy too!
I think that we both Cons, and Libs, have our own little quirks. It seems like neither of our guys understand the constitution very well.
(Maybe a few more of my guys,..but)
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a mental case.
But it’s usually due my attempting to try and decipher news from a MSM source, rather than just going to the various web sources.
It’s a whole lot less frustrating than having to read between the lines to guess what really happened as reported by ABC, or whatever.
Consider that a tip on mental stress reduction.
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HamachiTwo: the guardian reports the study was funded by the US government .I’m interested in how this study was funded. HAVE ANY IDEA?
An
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I think everyone has missed the obvious.
If you have a mental illness, then you probably are likely to think that people in the Democratic party care about you and are more likely than Republicans to provide assistance to you. I’m pretty sure that would explain the poll results.
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Scroop nailed it.
Ikke, Tell us. It was under the Bush administration, so we already know it was conducted by an Evangelical Bushie.
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Only 58% of Republicans have excellent mental health? I guess compared to the Democrats’ 38%, that’s better, but still.
Doing some quick math, that means that of all Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, just over half do not have excellent mental health(54%).
That’s just pathetic.
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Fusion’s hit on something here.
From my years surrounded by the Right, I have seen that certitude is a held as a moral value among Republicans, and admission of weakness is scorned. These would certainly contribute to Republicans claiming a high level of mental health regardless of their actual status.
The poll proves nothing more than this: Republicans have a higher view of their own mental health. That is a very different proposition than that they are mentally healthier.
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I couldn’t tell from the article whether there was a definition or description of mental health given, so people knew what exactly they were saying about themselves. Most of the people I know best – my parents, sister and brother-in-law, self, husband, and a number of friends – have been treated for clinical depression or other mental illness. I have been on an SSRI for seven years. Does the fact that I need medication mean I have poor mental health? I wouldn’t know how to answer the question.
(Most of the people I listed, by the way, are registered Republican, even my parents who were liberal and tended to vote Independent or Democrat. My husband is registered Independent but generally votes Republican.)
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Hmmm,
certitude, held as…moral value.
I’m already lost.
Some things are absolute, to the point of deserving complete confidence, aren’t they?
“admission of weakness”
The better of the GOP candidates are trumpeting our weaknesses, and running on eliminating them.
And, they are scorning those who are enabling this weakness.
If anything, it is the democrats who scorn admitting weakness. They’re the ones who scorn those who worry about who is coming across our borders…or, who is in control of Pakistan…or, who is interfering with our military efforts in Iraq
I wish the Democrats would admit these weaknesses
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Whether one is Conservative or Liberal has nothing to do with what an individual might need to relieve a legitimate mental issue.
I have chronic insomnia, due to God only knows.
(Drs. sure don’t)
That is a mental malady of some sort.
I’ve tried every chemical remedy available.
benzodiapezines are effective, but…ehhhhh, don’t want to go too far down that trail.
I’ve found the best way is to just let it ride..
Just throw your hands in the air, and say “Whatever..it either happens or it doesn’t”
Sometimes just the relief of not worrying about something makes the physical manifestation of it fade.
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BTW,
The reason for an occasional Xanax isn’t so much for me, as it is for the rest of the world.
Geez..maybe I am mental.
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“Yes, Bianca, we rednecks are to some extent stressed working hard paying for all the pretended “victims” out there though somehow through good sense and faith most conservatives manage to get ahead and enjoy life.”
Bianca, if this is the Peter Leavitt we are talking to here on the blog, he hardly is a starving redneck. Is this you, Cousin Peter?
http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_0czc83
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Amazing. I have a fundamentalist sister, but I’m pretty sure she’s not posting on worldmagblog as “Victoria.”
Actually, Victoria is a beacon of sanity compared to…
Well, never mind.
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How nice you consider me a beacon of sanity -
Thank you Random -
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You’re welcome.
However…
Watch out for those relative values on the part of agnostics.
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I suspect people who rate their own mental health as higher than others live in the same city as the people who are vain about how humble they are.
I’m not sure which group lives on the best side of the tracks.
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ignorance is bliss
after 8 years of bush, any self respecting thinking person would be reduced to prozac.
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Please check out page 2 of the results.
There is massive correlation between Republicans’ mental health and church attendance. Looks like Republicans with church priorities have by far the highest rate of good mental health of any other group.
While on the other hand, there is very little correlation between Democrats’ mental health and church attendance.
Perhaps this shows the true sincerity of Democrats’ “faith”?
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HRW – 57
Any so called “thinking person” would reject the idea of resorting to drugs, be it ‘prozac’ or any other drug, just because of a Presidential Election, …… you do understand this, RIGHT!
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you so understand humour, right?????
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HRW,
Humor is a good thing, but drugs aren’t – when anyone makes reference to using drugs, it is no longer a joke –
Making jokes about the President of the United States and using ‘prozac’ your statement: ……”“after 8 years of bush, any self respecting thinking person would be reduced to prozac.”
This isn’t appropriate, you still live in Canada right, so President Bush is not your President, yet you make such jokes……. WHY?
Those of us here in the US do not feel a need to take ‘prozac’ because of our President, that’s ridiculous, not to mention SILLY!
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Self reported attitudes can be suspect. Especially if there is an underlying reason for reporting in some way.
Studies show that blacks who think they “are not” victims of racism and discrimination are more likely to suffer from hypertension than blacks who think they “are” victims of racism. It has been suggested that all blacks experience racism and discrimination in some form and therefore those who claim not to have these negative experiences are in denial. This denial is what causes the hypertension.
My point is that someone in denial will misreport their own status.
At the same time, republicans are wealthier, more educated, and more religious (as measured by church attendance) than democrats. These all lead to greater mental health.
Luckily, I attend church weekly, am secure financially, and have sufficient education so perhaps my status as a democrat may not condemn me to a future in an insane asylum.
I make no guarantees however if the next election does not provide us with a competent president.
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Which candidate are you for?
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