Are residents of Red states happier than people in Blue states?

[pnwmom]

According to this state-by-state research, they appear to be.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/research_finds_the/

New research by the UK’s University of Warwick and Hamilton College in the US has used the happiness levels of a million individual US citizens to discover which are the best and worst states in which to live in the United States. New York and Connecticut come bottom of a life-satisfaction league table, and Hawaii and Louisiana are at the top. The analysis reveals also that happiness levels closely correlate with objective factors such as congestion and air quality across the US’s 50 states.

The new research published in the elite journal Science on 17th December 2009 is by Professor Andrew Oswald of the UK’s University of Warwick and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in the US. It provides the first external validation of people’s self-reported levels of happiness. “We would like to think this is a breakthrough. It provides an justification for the use of subjective well-being surveys in the design of government policies, and will be of value to future economic and clinical researchers across a variety of fields in science and social science” said Professor Oswald.

SNIP

1 Louisiana
2 Hawaii
3 Florida
4 Tennessee
5 Arizona
6 Mississippi
7 Montana
8 South Carolina
9 Alabama
10 Maine
11 Alaska
12 North Carolina
13 Wyoming
14 Idaho
15 South Dakota
16 Texas
17 Arkansas
18 Vermont
19 Georgia
20 Oklahoma
21 Colorado
22 Delaware
23 Utah
24 New Mexico
25 North Dakota
26 Minnesota
27 New Hampshire
28 Virginia
29 Wisconsin
30 Oregon
31 Iowa
32 Kansas
33 Nebraska
34 West Virginia
35 Kentucky
36 Washington
37 District of Columbia
38 Missouri
39 Nevada
40 Maryland
41 Pennsylvania
42 Rhode Island
43 Massachusetts
44 Ohio
45 Illinois
46 California
47 Indiana
48 Michigan
49 New Jersey
50 Connecticut
51 New York

[Libby2]

1. Happier? I would say oblivious!

I live in one of those states.

[pnwmom]

3. The researchers say that reported happiness correlated with objective factors.

"The analysis reveals also that happiness levels closely correlate with objective factors such as congestion and air quality across the US’s 50 states.

"The new research published in the elite journal Science on 17th December 2009 is by Professor Andrew Oswald of the UK’s University of Warwick and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in the US. It provides the first external validation of people’s self-reported levels of happiness. "

[HopeHoops]

2. The data for that survey was collected PRIOR to Katrina.

So #1 is probably no longer true. As for "being happy in red states", I suspect that has a lot to do with J.D. and Old Millwater.

[hayu_lol]

5. How did they define 'happiness?'...

How do each of you define being happy?

[pnwmom]

11. They asked people how happy they were, and then compared the reports of

happiness to data on environmental and other factors.

"The two researchers stumbled on a parallel approach that allowed them to do such a check. They discovered research by Stuart Gabriel and colleagues from UCLA published in 2003 which considered objective indicators for each individual State of the USA such as: precipitation; temperature; wind speed; sunshine; coastal land; inland water; public land; National Parks; hazardous waste sites; environmental ‘greenness’; commuting time; violent crime; air quality; student-teacher ratio; local taxes; local spending on education and highways; cost of living. This allowed the creation of a rank order of US states showing which should provide the happiest living experience. This was a truly external data source that could be used to check the self declared levels of happiness; Gabriel’s team had no happiness data in 2003 that could allow the check to be completed.

"But Professors Oswald and Wu were able to do the first state-by-state USA happiness calculations. They then obtained Gabriel’s numbers. When the two rankings were compared, they found a close correlation between people’s subjective life-satisfaction scores and objectively estimated quality of life.

"The lead author on the study, Professor Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick, said:

"The beauty of this statistical method is that we are able to look below the surface of American life -- to identify the deep patterns in people's underlying life satisfaction and happiness from Alabama to Wyoming. The type of study is new to the United States. We are the first to be able to do this calculation -- partly because we are fortunate enough to have a random anonymized sample of 1.3 million Americans. But we could not have done it without the early painstaking work by Gabriel’s team."

“The state-by-state pattern is of interest in itself. But it also matters scientifically. We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality -- of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc -- in their own state. And they do match. When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, you should pay attention. "

[pnwmom]

8. Some before, some after Katrina. But the researchers say that happiness has to do

with many environmental factors.

"The two researchers stumbled on a parallel approach that allowed them to do such a check. They discovered research by Stuart Gabriel and colleagues from UCLA published in 2003 which considered objective indicators for each individual State of the USA such as: precipitation; temperature; wind speed; sunshine; coastal land; inland water; public land; National Parks; hazardous waste sites; environmental ‘greenness’; commuting time; violent crime; air quality; student-teacher ratio; local taxes; local spending on education and highways; cost of living. This allowed the creation of a rank order of US states showing which should provide the happiest living experience. This was a truly external data source that could be used to check the self declared levels of happiness; Gabriel’s team had no happiness data in 2003 that could allow the check to be completed.

"But Professors Oswald and Wu were able to do the first state-by-state USA happiness calculations. They then obtained Gabriel’s numbers. When the two rankings were compared, they found a close correlation between people’s subjective life-satisfaction scores and objectively estimated quality of life.

"The lead author on the study, Professor Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick, said:

"The beauty of this statistical method is that we are able to look below the surface of American life -- to identify the deep patterns in people's underlying life satisfaction and happiness from Alabama to Wyoming. The type of study is new to the United States. We are the first to be able to do this calculation -- partly because we are fortunate enough to have a random anonymized sample of 1.3 million Americans. But we could not have done it without the early painstaking work by Gabriel’s team."

“The state-by-state pattern is of interest in itself. But it also matters scientifically. We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality -- of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc -- in their own state. And they do match. When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, you should pay attention. "

[pitohui]

28. SOME of the data was collected prior to katrina

immediately prior to katrina the gno area was involved in a huge, violent gang war

if "crime" makes people happier and more inclined to value life because of near misses, we had plenty plenty PLENTY of that before katrina

[marmar]

4. Someone ponied up valuable research dollars for this dreck?

nt

[tammywammy]

6. I think this will be a good one

:popcorn:

I'll check back after lunch.

BTW, a pretty happy person that lives in Texas. :)

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Why Not? They're In Total Control.

It's good to be in charge.

[Vinca]

9. No brain no pain.

[KamaAina]

10. Ummm.. Hawai'i is true Blue except for its governor.

In the legislature, it's 44-7 in the House and 23-2 in the Senate. (It was fun to watch the two repuke senators scramble to try and cover all the committees!) Congressional delegation: all Dem.

And Florida is turning purpler by the day.

[pnwmom]

14. And how many others in the top ten are true blue? Louisiana. nt

[PassingFair]

12. Ignorance is Bliss....

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic
is no more to the point than the fact that
a drunken man is happier than a sober one."

G.B. Shaw

Hawaii is an anomaly....who WOULDN'T be happy in Hawaii?"

[HopeHoops]

20. "There's a saying in Texas, and I suppose you have it here too...

fool me once, shame on you. (pause) You see, you don't get fooled again."

George Dubya Bush

Now there's a happy moron, but the booze is responsible for that.

[dgibby]

13. What's that old adage?

"Ignorance is bliss". Looks like it certainly applies here.

[NoGOPZone]

15. Several high income states are near the end, several low income state near the top

Maybe money can't buy happiness.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. I'm very happy in Alaska,

It has nothing to do with the state's politics, but everything to do with the natural beauty that surrounds me.

[madville]

17. I can relate to the study, I'm much happier in a rural setting

I'm much happier in a rural setting. I have a little house on one acre 12 miles from the closest town which has a population of 5,000. The area usually votes red or blue dog type democrats into office. I hate living in cities, not only are the taxes higher and the roads more congested, the people don't seem as nice. I'm in a much better mood out here with my gardens and the wildlife all around.

[Mugu]

36. Hear, hear. n/t

[onehandle]

18. We red staters are morons. Illustration attached --->

[Terra Alta]

19. as someone that lives in a state that only recently turned blue..

I'm happier now, than when my state was deeply red. Although I do still live in a deeply red county, I am working on changing that...

[ZombieHorde]

21. Montana is number 7, yet we have the second highest suicide rate.

Wyoming -- 116 -- 22.6 per 100,000 population
Montana -- 189 -- 20
Alaska -- 135 -- 19.9
Nevada -- 486 -- 19.5
New Mexico -- 352 -- 18.1
Arizona -- 979 -- 15.9
S. Dakota -- 125 -- 15.9
Oregon -- 579 -- 15.7
Colorado -- 730 -- 15.3
Idaho -- 222 -- 15.2
Oklahoma -- 537 --15
West Virginia -- 269 -- 14.9
Kentucky -- 622 -- 14.8
Tennessee -- 874 -- 14.4
N. Dakota -- 90 -- 14.1
Utah -- 362 -- 14
Kansas -- 379 -- 13.8
Missouri -- 799 -- 13.7
Florida -- 2,440 -- 13.5
Arkansas -- 376 -- 13.4
Indiana -- 824 -- 13.1
Vermont -- 81 -- 13.1
Washington state -- 809 -- 12.7
Alabama -- 580 -- 12.6
N. Carolina -- 1,106 -- 12.5
S. Carolina -- 524 -- 12.1
Maine -- 158 -- 12
Wisconsin -- 670 -- 12
Louisiana -- 492 -- 11.6
Ohio -- 1,325 -- 11.6
Nebraska -- 202 -- 11.5
New Hampshire -- 151 -- 11.5
Virginia -- 876 -- 11.5
Michigan -- 1,139 -- 11.3
Pennsylvania -- 1,396 -- 11.3
Iowa -- 334 -- 11.2
Mississippi -- 325 -- 11.2
Minnesota -- 554 -- 10.8
Delaware -- 91 -- 10.7
Texas -- 2,347 -- 10
Georgia -- 923 -- 9.9
Hawaii -- 120 -- 9.4
California -- 3,334 -- 9.2
Maryland -- 495 -- 8.8
Rhode Island -- 90 -- 8.5
Connecticut -- 292 -- 8.4
Illinois -- 1,010 -- 7.9
Mass. -- 450 -- 7
New York -- 1,326 -- 6.9
New Jersey -- 585 -- 6.8
D.C. -- 30 -- 5.1

U.S. 33,300 -- 11.2

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43026
--------------
The average is 11.2, yet Louisiana 11.6, slightly above national average.

New York is the unhappiest place, yet their suicide rate is really low.

[T Wolf]

22. The simple minded are easily amused. And distracted. nt

[krabigirl]

23. As someone living in a very Red area of a Blue state, I'd say only if they were conservative.

I feel so lost here.

[brendan120678]

24. I live in #50, and used to live in #51...

And honestly, I'm pretty happy.

In fact, I don't have much of anything at all to be unhappy about.
Sure I get stressed with work or family or other commitments sometimes...but I'm certainly not unhappy.

I pretty much love my life.

[frustrated_lefty]

25. I had a lawn in New Orleans.

Not so much in Philly.

[Sidekicker]

39. green growy grasses

Lawn? As in TURF???

I'm trying to picture you mowing a lawn.
404 ERROR IMAGE NOT FOUND.

Do lawnmowers have ashtrays?

[Cirque du So-What]

26. Happiness is overrated IMO

I equate happiness with complacency & ignorance. As long as I'm reasonably well-informed, I'd rather be discontented than happy & apathetic.

[pitohui]

27. people who get outdoors and get more vit. D are happier than indoors people

it's also a fact that new yorkers etc. think they're too cool for school and would never, ever admit to being fat and happy, even if they are -- trying to get a yankee to admit he's happy is an uphill battle in my view, he thinks it makes him look more intelligent if he's critical, bitter, and cynical -- there's a common view that a happy person clearly doesn't know wtf is going on

the "objective factors" cited were a joke -- climate and crime were two biggies, the top three states have terrible climates, they are hurricane states, and in florida and esp. louisiana virtually every resident has some symptoms of natural disaster related post traumatic stress order (after katrina i heard but can't verify that residents of louisiana had the highest rate of prescribed SSRIs of any state)

maybe crime is not all that bad in hawaii, altho you can't leave your car attended on oahu or a meth freak will break into it, but crime, esp, violent crime is sky high in louisiana and florida, indeed, rates of homicide in new orleans (a small city) routinely compete with and sometimes come out way ahead over rates of homicide in large ones like detroit and gary (an industrial suburb of chicago)

it is noticeable the people in the south seem happier but i don't know if they are happier or if they are just more willing to show their feelings when they're happy

the logic of the study is just crazy, why would CRIME make people happy anyway? i guess because when they narrowly escape death they appreciate life more? that's the only thing i can think of...but i didn't exactly think i would live forever after the drive by shooting

[pnwmom]

29. I don't think the study was saying crime makes people happy.

I thought it was saying the opposite -- that low crime correlates with happiness.

[NashVegas]

34. I'm In a Gorgeous Red State

And that certainly helps.

Another thing that helps - and I've lived 1/3 my life in a red state, 2/3 in blue states:

In a red state, you get more emotional support from your friends and family than you do in a blue state.

In the blues states I grew up in, if someone hurts you and pisses you off, your friends and family will tell you to be rational and look at it from the other person's POV. In a red state, they will tell you what a jerk that person is, while they quietly assume you'll come around to logic when you're ready to.

[Iggo]

30. Blissful, maybe. (n/t)

[nemo137]

31. Wow, we Flatlanders are down there.

I'm generally happy being an Illinoisan. Maybe they just misinterpreted our complaints about the weather. :shrug:

[TNDemo]

32. It obviously can't have anything to do with politics

since most red states are almost half blue. That would be a lot of unhappy democrats so the state wouldn't be so happy. And if being a democrat makes you happy, why are those very blue states so unhappy?

[taught_me_patience]

33. California at #46... WTF

That ranking is hard to figure out. California has great weather, people, outdoor activities, and business.

[Guilded Lilly]

35. Happiness is measured on an

individual basis.

You can be abjectly miserable anywhere, and extremely happy anywhere and most of us fall in between the extremes depending on how we feel when we get up in the morning, who we communicate with in the immediate area of wherever we are, and what happens to us personally on any given day.

Breakthrough????

That's a lot of research for a really simple answer. "Happy" comes from within. Take that with you wherever you live for as long as you can.

Cure cancer instead, maybe?

[Fumesucker]

37. Ya can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd..

Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

All ya gotta do is put your mind to it
Knuckle down, buckle down, do it, do it, do it

Well, ya can't go a-swimmin' in a baseball pool
Ya can't go swimmin' in a baseball pool
Ya can't go swimmin' in a baseball pool
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't change film with a kid on your back
Ya can't change film with a kid on your back
Ya can't change film with a kid on your back
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car
Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car
Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

All ya gotta do is put your mind to it
Knuckle down, buckle down do it, do it, do it

Well, ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch
Ya can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch
Ya can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
SPOKEN: "Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj2daexBhgI

[meow2u3]

38. If ignorance is bliss, then this study proves it

eom