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Previous research in political psychology has suggested that people with conservative political attitudes tend to have better physical health than
their liberal counterparts (Chan, 2019) (which I discussed in more detail
in a previous post). A more recent study (Kirkegaard, 2020) found that political ideology may also be relevant to mental health, as people who
are more liberal, especially those identifying as �extremely liberal,� are
more likely to have mental health problems. The author suggested that this
may be because political conservatism is associated with greater
religiosity, which in turn is associated with better physical and mental health. However, the beneficial relationship between religiosity and
health has only been found to apply in cultures in which religion is
highly respected, and does not occur in more secular cultures (Stavrova,
2015). On the other hand, conservatism and liberalism are associated with
the personality traits of conscientiousness and neuroticism, respectively, which are more robustly linked with mental health than religiosity.

Kirkegaard�s study used data from the General Social Survey, a large-scale survey of American adults age 18 and older that is conducted every few
years. The survey includes several questions relevant to mental health,
such as �Have you ever felt you had a mental health problem?� �Have you personally ever received treatment for a mental health problem?� and so
on. Additionally, the survey includes two questions about happiness or
life satisfaction: �Taken all together, how would you say things are these days: Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too
happy?� and, �If you were to consider your life in general, how happy or unhappy would you say you are, on the whole?� Respondents also indicated
their political ideology on a 1-7 scale from extremely liberal to
extremely conservative. Kirkegaard�s analysis found that, overall,
liberals tended to report poorer mental health than conservatives. This
trend was particularly pronounced for those of both sexes self-labeled as �extremely liberal,� who tended to be noticeably worse off on several
measures, not just compared to conservatives, but even compared to those identifying as �liberal� or �slightly liberal." On the other hand, those
who identified as �extremely conservative� tended to have similar levels
of mental health compared to those identifying as �conservative� and
�slightly conservative,� with generally mild differences from �moderate,� �slightly liberal,� and �liberal� respondents. Similarly, in response to
the two questions about happiness, conservative respondents in all groups tended to report being happier than liberal groups generally, with
extremely liberal men but not women reporting the least happiness. Statistically, differences between the most extreme ideological categories tended to be moderate in size.

Kirkegaard suggested that the relationship between mental health and
ideology might reflect that conservatives tend to be more religious, and
being religious is associated with health benefits (Koenig, 2012), while admitting that a cross-sectional survey is not very informative regarding causality. However, other research has found that the apparently
beneficial relationship between religiosity and health is not universal
but appears to reflect the fit between the individual and their culture (Stavrova, 2015). That is, in cultural contexts where religiosity is well- respected, religious individuals gain social benefits that seem to improve their health. On the other hand, in cultural contexts where religion is
not as well regarded, these benefits disappear. This finding applied not
just between different countries but even within different regions of the
US with high versus low levels of religiousness. Hence, it may be worth considering other factors, such as personality traits that are known to be related to both ideology and mental health.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unique-everybody- else/202103/personality-traits-mental-illness-and-ideology

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