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XPost: alt.psychology, talk.politics.guns, free.woke.racist.democrats
Previous research in political psychology has suggested that people
with conservative political attitudes tend to have better physical
health than their liberal counterparts (Chan, 2019) (which I
discussed in more detail in a previous post). A more recent study
(Kirkegaard, 2020) found that political ideology may also be
relevant to mental health, as people who are more liberal,
especially those identifying as “extremely liberal,” are more likely
to have mental health problems. The author suggested that this may
be because political conservatism is associated with greater
religiosity, which in turn is associated with better physical and
mental health. However, the beneficial relationship between
religiosity and health has only been found to apply in cultures in
which religion is highly respected, and does not occur in more
secular cultures (Stavrova, 2015). On the other hand, conservatism
and liberalism are associated with the personality traits of
conscientiousness and neuroticism, respectively, which are more
robustly linked with mental health than religiosity.
Kirkegaard suggested that the relationship between mental health and
ideology might reflect that conservatives tend to be more religious,
and being religious is associated with health benefits (Koenig,
2012), while admitting that a cross-sectional survey is not very
informative regarding causality. However, other research has found
that the apparently beneficial relationship between religiosity and
health is not universal but appears to reflect the fit between the
individual and their culture (Stavrova, 2015). That is, in cultural
contexts where religiosity is well-respected, religious individuals
gain social benefits that seem to improve their health. On the other
hand, in cultural contexts where religion is not as well regarded,
these benefits disappear. This finding applied not just between
different countries but even within different regions of the US with
high versus low levels of religiousness. Hence, it may be worth
considering other factors, such as personality traits that are known
to be related to both ideology and mental health.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unique-everybody- else/202103/personality-traits-mental-illness-and-ideology
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