Academia, Bizarre, Politics, Science, Society

Choose Life, Live Left? Study Finds That Liberals Outlive Conservatives

President_Barack_ObamaGeorge-W-Bush_jpegFor conservatives, it must sound like “better red than dead” all over again. A new study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health suggests that liberals live longer than conservatives in the United States. The researchers looked at more than 32,000 adults and tracked them over 15 years. The result was surprising: conservatives seemed to be expiring faster than their counterparts on the left. However, conservatives claimed to be happier than their counterparts in life.


It has been reported that Hillary Clinton has been working on a new campaign theme. Perhaps they should consider a “Vote Hillary Or Die” campaign.

Roman Pabayo, a community health researcher at the University of Nevada said that the group relied on more concrete data like actual death records than did prior studies. They also eliminated other factors by comparing conservatives and liberals of similar age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Notably, when divided simply between parties, Democratic and Republican party members died at the same rate, but when compared on ideological grounds, conservatives bit the dust first on average.

Subu V. Subramanian, a professor of population health and geography at Harvard was critical of the findings. His study relied on self-reporting and found that Republicans reported better health and they were 15% less likely to smoke. He also found that Republicans and conservatives were benefitted by being more religious and “more tied into social networks and organizations.”

It may still be too early for some conservatives to embrace wage equity and global warming. The difference in death rates is described by Subramanian as “slight” in the new study.

Source: USA Today

270 thoughts on “Choose Life, Live Left? Study Finds That Liberals Outlive Conservatives”

  1. Isaac, What is your criteria for calling this survey, “Independent of politics?”

  3. My specialty is providing information instead of spouting misinformation and right-wing ideology. That frustrates the echo chamber on this blog. Ho…hum. So it goes.

  4. issac, I’m enjoying a few laughs. I’m laughing at the absurdity of lambasting Bill Moyers because of the findings of a study he didn’t conduct. And I hold no animosity toward my conservative friends who will fight those findings without a shred of evidence to the contrary! It’s all good.

  6. Chip, That is her specialty, along w/ many liberal links. Predictable as the sunset, Chip.

  8. Blue State, Red Face: Guess Who Benefits More From Your Taxes?

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/25/blue_state_red_face_guess_who_benefits_more_from_your_taxes.html

    Excerpt:
    There are serious economists who study the difference between what our states pay in taxes and how much they get in return from the U.S. government. These people generally don’t draw political, let alone moral, judgments from these numbers.

    I’m under no such constraint. The numbers, for decades now, have been quite clear: With some exceptions, what we regard as red states are sent a whole lot more of your hard-earned tax dollars than the traditional blue states. In effect, supposedly indolent, “tax and spend” liberals actually subsidize the individualistic, pure, and hard-working lifestyle of our conservative countrymen.

  9. You guys, and gals

    For once, something humorous, independent of politics comes along and all you can come up with is vitriol. Perhaps you should take this survey more seriously, and then more seriously, and then more seriously. Watch ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and then leave the addresses of your resting places for me.

  10. Very interesting. The study was conducted by researchers from US.

    Department of Psychology, and Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA

    And: ‘This is not fringe science: One of Hibbing’s pioneering papers on the physiology of ideology was published in none other than the top-tier journal Science in 2008.’

    It can be read at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9292100

    ‘Previous research on the broader bases of political ideology is often interpreted as suggesting that locations on the right of the political spectrum are a deviation from the norm (or even a pathology) in need of explanation [10,51]. For example, McClosky [52, p. 40] concludes those on the right are ‘distrustful of differences … fear change, dread disorder, are intolerant of nonconformity, and derogate reason’ while Block & Block [53, p. 395] find that those on the right are ‘easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, relatively over-controlled and vulnerable’.’

    http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1589/640.full.pdf+html

    So that means the conclusions of the study are the result of Bill Moyers being a liberal!!! Alrighty then……

  11. Gotta control for occupation in a study like this. I’ve seen some evidence that people in more hazardous jobs are more likely to lean right politically.

  14. they are still thinking as if they are about to be attacked by mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and giant beavers. And the role of women. I won’t even go there….

    OMG…..I never thought of those. Here I was worried about being overrun by Neanderthals. Thank goodness I have a nice gun safe full of armaments and ammo.

    So…..after I shoot the mammoth, I’d better think about my womanly role and look up some mammoth steak recipes.

    /facepalm

  15. Bill Moyers is the left’s Breitbart. When you are independent, you see both sides garbage.

  16. I should have stated that conservative minds live in the long ago past since they are still thinking as if they are about to be attacked by mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and giant beavers. And the role of women. I won’t even go there….

    Next time I’ll pull a respected scientific survey from Fox, Newsmax or Prison Planet…What? They don’t believe in science? Never mind……

  18. Pogo, When I taught high school history there was a weird little man who taught in the dept. He used the exact words “Conservatives live in the past.” It is a mantra drilled into cultists. One might asked why liberals are so obsessed w/ old transportation like choo choo trains and getting off the grid. Remember, Ted Kaczyinski is a liberal.

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