Activism Makes You Happy
By Raj on 06/8/2010 in UncategorizedA great recent post in the Guardian pointed me to this piece in Political Psychology.
I’m looking forward to seeing whether the political valence of activism makes a difference – in other words, does the substance of political activism make a difference to levels of wellbeing? It’d be a hard experiment to do – the standard spectrum of political opinion from left to right is a very poor basis on which to discriminate. Asking whether someone is a Republican or Democrat tells you vanishingly little their attitudes to politics these days. But I’m sure that with a good set of questions, and perhaps a wider universe than just college students, it’d be possible to come up with something sensible.
Activism makes you sheep
I agree with the conclusion for the guardian article, “Perhaps activism gives people a sense of purpose, or of agency or just a chance to hang out with other people. Most likely it does all of the above.” I think that when people are involved in politics they’re involved in shaping the future of their own lives and others, so how can one not be happier being involved. Also being around others and having a sense of community and a social life can go a long way to contribute to ones happiness!