Skip to main content
Log in

Conservatives Report Less Autonomous Work Motivation and Less Intrinsic Values than Liberals, but are Happier Nonetheless: The Explanatory Role of Psychological Need-Satisfaction

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Happiness Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Many studies have compared conservative and liberal personalities in terms of traits and cognitive styles. Fewer studies have compared the motivations and values of the two groups, and fewer still have used the perspective of self-determination theory. Using two large archival datasets (Ns = 16,058 university students and 4314 working lawyers), I tested the hypotheses that conservatives would score lower in autonomous work motivation (H1) and in relative intrinsic value orientation (H2), compared to liberals. Consistent support was found for these two hypotheses. Supporting H3, autonomous work motivation and intrinsic value orientation were positively correlated with subjective well-being (SWB), as is typical. Still, despite their seeming motivational vulnerabilities, conservatives reported more SWB and meaning in life than liberals, consistent with other recent studies (H4). Mediational analyses suggest that the conservative advantage in SWB can be partially explained by conservative advantages in relatedness and/or competence need-satisfaction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adorno, T. W., Frankel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A. C. (2006). Who really cares: The surprising truth about compassionate conservatism. Perseus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunstein, J. C. (1993). Personal goals and subjective well-being: A longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1061–1070.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carney, D. R., Jost, J. T., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology, 29, 807–840.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J. (2007). Most Americans are very satisfied with their personal lives. Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/103483/most-americans-very-satisfied-their-personal-lives.aspx

  • Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The Brief Symptom Inventory: An introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13, 595–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. (1994). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research, 31, 103–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duriez, B., Meeus, J., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2012). Why are some people more susceptible to ingroup threat than others? The importance of a relative extrinsic to intrinsic value orientation. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 164–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edsall, T. (October 20, 2021). Opinion | Conservatives are happier than liberals. Discuss. The New York Times (nytimes.com).

  • Emmons, R. A. (1991). Personal strivings, daily life events, and psychological and physical well-being. Journal of Personality, 59, 453–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2022). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis (3rd ed.). Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. John Wiley and sons.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, J., Gagne, M., & Bureau, J. (2017). Testing a continuum structure of self-determined motivation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 143(12), 1346–1377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jost, J. (2017). The marketplace of ideology: “Elective affinities’ in political psychology and their implications for consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27(4), 502–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jost, J. (2021). Left and right: The psychological significance of a political distinction. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahan, D. M. (2016). The politically motivated reasoning paradigm, part 1: What politically motivated reasoning is and how to measure it. In R. A. Scott & S. M. Kosslyn (Eds.), Emerging trends in social and behavioral sciences.

  • Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 410–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsicgoals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 280–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krieger, L., & Sheldon, K. M. (2015). What makes lawyers happy? A data-driven prescription to redefine professional success. The George Washington Law Review, 83(2), 554.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (2013). The psychological self as actor, agent, and author. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 8(3), 272–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendez, M. F. (2017). A neurology of the conservative-liberal dimension of political ideology. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 29, 86–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, M., Smith, K. B., Hibbing, J. R., & Dodd, M. D. (2014). The politics of the face-in-the-crowd. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1199–1213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, K. R., & Ybarra, O. (2009). Symbolic threat and social dominance among liberals and conservatives: SDO reflects conformity to political values. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1039–1052.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myers, D. (2000). The funds, friends and faith of happy people. American Psychologist, 55, 56–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Napier, J. L., & Jost, J. T. (2008). Why are conservatives happier than liberals? Psychological Science, 19, 565–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, D. B., Schwarz, N., Graham, J., & Stone, A. A. (2019). Conservatives report greater meaning in life than liberals. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10, 494–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Onraet, E., Van Hiel, A., & Dhont, K. (2013). The relationship between right-wing ideological attitudes and psychological well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 509–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, R. M., Soenens, B., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2019). Reflections on self-determination theory as an organizing framework for personality psychology: Interfaces, integrations, issues, and unfinished business. Journal of Personality, 87(1), 115–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlenker, B. R., Chambers, J. R., & Le, B. M. (2012). Conservatives are happier than liberals, but why? Political ideology, personality, and life satisfaction. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 127–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M. (2011). Integrating behavioral-motive and experiential-requirement perspectives on psychological needs: A two process perspective. Psychological Review, 118(4), 552–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M., & Corcoran, M. (2019). Comparing the current and long-term career motivations of artists and business-people: Is everyone intrinsic in the end? Motivation and Emotion, 43(2), 218–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M., & Hilpert, J. C. (2012). The balanced measure of psychological needs (BMPN) scale: An alternative domain general measure of need satisfaction. Motivation and Emotion, 36, 439–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M., & Nichols, C. (2009). Comparing the values of republicans and democrats. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 589–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M., Osin, E. N., Gordeeva, T. O., & Suchkov, D. (2017). Evaluating the dimensionality of Self-determination theory’s relative autonomy continuum. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 1215–1238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M., & Prentice, M. (2019). Self-determination theory as a foundation for personality researchers. Journal of Personality, 87, 5–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., & Kasser, T. (2004). The independent effects of goal contents and motives on well-being: It’s both what you pursue and why you pursue it. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 475–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, A. K., Rowe, A. J., Bird, S., Powers, S., & Legault, L. (2016). Motivational orientation explains the link between political ideology and proenvironmental behavior. Ecopsychology, 8(4), 239–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steger, M., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P., Funk, C., & Craighill, P. (2006). Are we happy yet? Pew Research social trends report. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yet

  • Titova, L., & Sheldon, K. M. (2020). Thwarted beneficence: Not getting to help lowers mood. Journal of Positive Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1858339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomkins, S. S. (1995). Ideology and affect. In E. V. Davos (Ed.), Exploring affect: The selected writings of Silvan S. Tomkins (pp. 109–167). University of Cambridge Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Van Lange, P. A. M. (2015). Politics and psychology: A view from a social dilemma perspective. In J. P. Forgas, K. Fiedler, & W. D. Crano (Eds.), Social psychology and politics (Vol. 17, pp. 227–241). Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Tellegen, A., & Clark, L. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, G. D. (Ed.). (1973). The psychology of conservatism. Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wojcik, S., Hovasapian, A., Graham, J., Motyl, M., & Ditto, P. (2015). Conservatives report, but liberals display, greater happiness. Science, 347, 1243–1246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2014). Motivated happiness: Self-enhancement inflates self-reported subjective well-being. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 825–834.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Womick, J., Ward, S. J., Heintzelman, S. J., Woody, B., & King, L. A. (2019). The existential function of right-wing authoritarianism. Journal of Personality, 87, 1056–1073.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kennon M. Sheldon.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sheldon, K.M. Conservatives Report Less Autonomous Work Motivation and Less Intrinsic Values than Liberals, but are Happier Nonetheless: The Explanatory Role of Psychological Need-Satisfaction. J Happiness Stud 24, 1533–1547 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00656-0

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00656-0

Keywords

Navigation