[IP] Where's the Outrage?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Robert Atkinson [rca53@columbia.edu]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 8:17 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Where's the Outrage?

Dave,

Many news articles and blogs (and many IP commentaries) give the impression that Americans are very angry and unhappy.  Apparently, that is not the case according to an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121746010408198765.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries).

Excerpts:

Where's the Outrage? Really.
By ARTHUR C. BROOKS
July 31, 2008; Page A15

In May 2008, the Gallup Organization asked 1,200 American adults how many days in the past week they had felt "outraged." The average number of angry days was 1.17, and 54% of those surveyed said none. Only one in 20 reported being outraged every day.....

Indeed, we are less angry today than a decade ago. Let's look back to the glory days of the 1990s, when -- according to the media narrative -- we enjoyed uninterrupted peace and prosperity. In 1996, the General Social Survey asked exactly the same "outrage" question of 1,500 adults. Then, only 38% had not been outraged at all in the past week. The average number of angry days was 1.5 per week, 29% higher than at present.

Only one major group in the population has gotten angrier: people who call themselves "very liberal." While conservatives, moderates and nonextreme liberals all have seen their average levels of outrage fall over the past 12 years, the number of angry days among our leftiest neighbors has risen 56% (to 2.28 from 1.46), and the percentage with no angry days in the past week has fallen to 31% from 37%. Today, very liberal people spend more than twice as much time feeling angry as do political moderates. One in seven is outraged seven days a week.

... anger does not translate very well into lower levels of happiness. In fact, extreme liberals were more likely than moderates in 2008 to say they were "very happy" about their lives (28% to 25%). This is of a piece with a growing body of political research which finds that people on the extreme left (and extreme right) tend to be quite a bit happier than those with more moderate views.

--
Robert C. Atkinson

mobile: 908-447-4201
E-mail: rca53@columbia.edu
alt: bob@robertcatkinson.com





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