The differences are not large but, given the enormous sample size (n = 400,000+), significant; which is to say highly unlikely to occur by chance alone. Republicans experience greater wellbeing than do Democrats or Independents.
As measured by the Healthways Well-being Index, wellbeing is a composite of six subscales: life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors, work environment, and basic access. The survey was done by the Gallup organization.
We don't experience these findings as unusual or unexpected. Those whose life is working out better would be less inclined to seek change, that is to say "conservative." In fact, it would not be too far off the mark to identify most Republicans as those for whom life is good, and most Democrats as those for whom life isn't meeting their expectations.
No, we didn't say "winners" and "losers." You could say that but we wouldn't; it's too extreme for the tone we try to achieve here at COTTonLINE.
