Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others

[PollyCranopolis 10+ year member]

PRINCETON, NJ -- 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 relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/102943/Republicans-Report-Much-Better-Mental-Health-Than-Others.aspx

Discuss.

Click to read more...

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

I believe this represents the current state of Republican mental health........

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

lmfao @ that pic.

Complexity and intelligence is going to put more things into play mentally. Simple unidimensional minds will not consider that which may vex the more intellectually dynamic.

Think about it.

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

Those results just indicate that republicans are liars and they are delusional.

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

That too.

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

Also I have really become the most

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

liberals bring down the democrats. normal democrats aren't much different from normal republicans.

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

ridiculous

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

post *****

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

Discussion

What are the implications of these findings?

Correlation is no proof of causation, of course. 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 (or whether some third variable is responsible for causing both to be parallel).

Previous analysis (see Related Items) shows that a number of variables are related to self-reported mental health -- including, in particular, income. Because Republicans have on average higher incomes than independents or Democrats, part of the explanation for the relationship between being a Republican and having better mental health is a result of this underlying factor. The same is true for several other variables.

But the key finding of the analyses presented here is that 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 exact explanation for this persistent relationship -- as noted -- is unclear.

Here is another part of the article that he conveniently left out.

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

Here are the actual stats and if you know anything about stats this will seem quite unimpressive.

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

.139 isn't very strong even at the .000 level of significance.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

Here are the actual stats and if you know anything about stats this will seem quite unimpressive.

most people will have no idea what that table means.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

(or whether some third variable is responsible for causing both to be parallel).

I would posit that this is indeed the case and the relationship is spurious.

It would seem that those subscribing to a political ideology that values self determination and 'pulling one up by the bootstraps' would be more likely to view their own mental health as better than those who subscribe to a political ideology that values helping people overcome the challenges they face in life.

 

[jimmclrk1 10+ year member]

most people will have no idea what that table means.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

I don't need to.