The Social Psychological and Personality Science journal recently published a study by researcher David Newman concluding that people who align with a conservative outlook experience greater feelings of purpose and meaning in their lives. Newman’s study consisted of researching 50,000 people from 16 different countries over a 40-year period. His team of researchers found that conservatives more often than not were motivated by a specific purpose in life and therefore experience a greater sense of meaning. Newman added a caveat: “It doesn’t mean that every conservative finds a lot of meaning in their life and that every liberal is depressed.”

Some key contributing factors that played into determining someone’s sense of meaningfulness ranged “from various personal characteristics such as how religious someone is to situational influences such as one’s current mood.”

In looking at the two major political parties within the U.S., it is noteworthy that conservatives align with Republicans whereas liberals and leftists tend toward Democrats. It is interesting to note the parties’ contrasting messages. Republicans more often than not preach the message of limited government, responsibility and self-reliance, while Democrats on the other hand continuously preach a message of victimhood and entitlement — “what government should be doing for you, because you can’t help yourself.” The former is empowering and the latter is debilitating, tending only to provoke feelings of resentment, anger, and helplessness.

By the way, this comes on the heels of a study calling liberals crazy and a famously liberal journalist declaring conservatives aren’t.

A final observation: Which president was known for his sunny optimism? Ronald Reagan.