Progressives doom themselves to unhappiness by praying at the altar of noble self-loathing

In my latest book, The Saad Truth about Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life, I explain that when it comes to individual differences in happiness, roughly 50 per cent stem from our genes. Of course, the good news is that the other 50 per cent is up for grabs. The decisions that we make (e.g., choice of spouse and career) and mindsets we adopt (e.g., moderation, resilience, persistence, playfulness, variety-seeking, anticipatory regret) also affect our sense of well-being. In the book, I discuss many variables that correlate with happiness, including money, health, personality, religiosity and culture.

I’d like to focus on whether people’s political orientation affects their happiness. Many studies have yielded the robust finding that conservatives are generally happier than liberals and progressives. Why would this be the case?