--- description: Are political conservatives really happier than liberals? Democrats smile more genuinely, even though Republicans claim they're happier. title: Liberals are More Honest Than Conservatives When They Smile: Study image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc869739992979850/69878312cd1bba201a6f5a0f/150311_ho_obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Research](/tag/research/) ## Research Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Liberals are More Honest Than Conservatives When They Smile  by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 13, 2015 8:48 PM CUT  President Barack Obama speaks at Georgia Tech about his plan to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt, Tuesday, March 10, 2015, in Atlanta. More than 40 million Americans are in debt thanks to their education, and most of their loans come from Uncle Sam. So President Barack Obama is aiming to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt with a presidential memorandum he signed Tuesday. President Barack Obama speaks at Georgia Tech about his plan to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt, Tuesday, March 10, 2015, in Atlanta. More than 40 million Americans are in debt thanks to their education, and most of their loans come from Uncle Sam. So President Barack Obama is aiming to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt with a presidential memorandum he signed Tuesday.David Goldman—AP  by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 13, 2015 8:48 PM CUT In the “who’s happier?” race, a whole body of research shows conservatives report being happier. [Four new studies](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6227/1243 "undefined") published in _Science_ hint at a possible reason why. Most happiness research is based on subjective, self-reported data, as opposed to objective measures of happiness, which can be harder to study. The new research highlights a difference between the two. The studies, led by Sean Wojcik, a doctoral student in psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine, first confirmed what’s already known: In a survey of 1,433 people, political conservatives reported being more satisfied with life than liberals. But researchers found another pronounced trend else among conservatives: They were more likely to judge themselves and their circumstances in an overly positive way. That may explain the happiness gap, the researchers thought. To test it, they embarked on a series of studies. In one, they analyzed transcripts from Congress to determine the kinds of emotionally charged language people used, and found that liberals used more positive words than conservatives. In another study, researchers assessed photos of Congress members and gauged the smiling intensity of the delegates, finding that liberals were more intense and genuine smilers. “We saw greater activation of the muscles around the eye,” says Wojcik. “That typically indicates more genuine feelings of happiness and enjoyment.” The same held true in non-politician liberals, according to an analysis of the profile photos of liberally and conservatively aligned LinkedIn users. So when conservatives _say_ they’re happier, but liberals actually display happier behavior, who is, in fact, happiest? It’s impossible to call. “It really depends on how you measure and define happiness,” Wojcik says. Wojcik says he plans to study the impact of the benefits of this kind of “self-enhancement” seen in conservatives but less in liberals. So far, research suggests it’s related to an increased ability to care for others, more creative and productive work and better mental health, Wojcik says. “It’s not that conservatives are lying about their happiness,” Wojcik says. “They just have a more confident style of self-assessment where they evaluate themselves positively across a whole bunch of different kinds of traits, and happiness just appears to be one of them.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3744433/liberals-conservatives-happiness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3744433/liberals-conservatives-happiness/"},"headline":"Liberals are More Honest Than Conservatives When They Smile","datePublished":"2015-03-13T20:48:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:09:22.704Z","description":"But conservatives report being happier","url":"https://time.com/3744433/liberals-conservatives-happiness/","keywords":["Research","politics","Happiness","Conservatives","Mental Health/Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc869739992979850/69878312cd1bba201a6f5a0f/150311_ho_obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc869739992979850/69878312cd1bba201a6f5a0f/150311_ho_obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"150311_HO_Obama","caption":"President Barack Obama speaks at Georgia Tech","creditText":"David Goldman—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3744433/liberals-conservatives-happiness/","name":"Liberals are More Honest Than Conservatives When They Smile"}}]}] ```