Recent research published in advances in psychology Evidence shows that people’s happiness and life satisfaction are closely related to how much they agree with government actions. The findings suggest that while living under a government that aligns with one’s values provides psychological comfort, political opposition can temporarily have a negative impact on mental health.
Politics can determine the distribution of resources and individual rights that directly shape an individual’s overall quality of life. During the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term in early 2025, the United States experienced a wave of fundamental policy changes. Because this period also included challenges to traditional democratic norms, the researchers wanted to measure the psychological impact of these rapid political changes.
“Political polarization in the United States is becoming increasingly polarized, which can affect people’s well-being, and there is growing concern about democratic backsliding as governments undermine democratic norms and institutions,” said study author Deborah Wu, assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University and director of the IDEA (Identity Development, Emotions, and Attitudes) Laboratory.
“While past research has shown that Republicans tend to report higher levels of happiness than Democrats, less is known about how people’s political party affiliation predicts their long-term well-being, or whether reactions to certain government actions are associated with people’s well-being during times of democratic stress. In this study, we examined both of these questions.”
The researchers used several psychological concepts to guide their predictions, including system validity. This is the idea that people have a natural incentive to defend and rationalize existing political structures, and that doing so reduces feelings of uncertainty and threat. Another concept is motivated cognition. This suggests that people process information in ways that protect their pre-existing beliefs and group identities.
A third concept, known as person-environment fit, suggests that people naturally feel better when their broader social and political environment matches their inner values. Based on these theories, the scientific team wanted to see if people’s alignment with or alienation from their current government’s actions was related to their overall well-being. They also wanted to test whether this alignment was important beyond mere party loyalty.
To investigate these questions, scientists recruited 601 adults living in the United States. The sample included 306 Democrats and 295 Republicans, with an average age of approximately 42 years. Over a five-week period from late February to late March 2025, participants completed weekly online surveys.
By the final week, 397 participants remained in the study. Each week, participants rated their overall life satisfaction and overall happiness on a scale of 1 to 7. Starting in the second week, the researchers asked participants to read three recent news articles about federal government actions.
These articles covered topics such as international tariffs, immigration enforcement, funding cuts to scientific research, and court orders blocking certain administrative policies. Participants then rated the extent to which they supported or opposed the behavior described in each news article.
The data showed a clear difference in how the two political groups felt during this five-week period. Republicans consistently report higher levels of both life satisfaction and happiness compared to Democrats at any point in time. Over the past five weeks, Republicans’ overall happiness has been on a steady upward trend.
Democrats had a different pattern of emotional response. Initially, Democrats’ life satisfaction and happiness decreased in the first few weeks of the survey. After this initial dip, a recovery occurred, and eventually, by the end of the study period, their happiness levels rose again.
“One of the surprising findings was that Democrats initially showed decreased happiness, but then their happiness increased over time,” Wu told SciPost. “This suggests that people may be more adaptable to political stressors than we might expect. Even in a difficult political environment, individuals may adapt, find ways to cope, and elicit support from others who share their views.”
This process may be related to hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation is the tendency for humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of well-being despite major positive or negative events.
When researchers looked at reactions to specific news events, they found that Republicans generally supported the administration’s policies. The Democratic Party strongly supported the action taken against the administration. Importantly, support for government action was consistently associated with increased happiness and life satisfaction. Opposing government action was associated with lower happiness.
The researchers then used statistical models to account for basic demographic factors such as age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and political affiliation. Even after controlling for these factors, the relationship between support for government policies and happiness remained.
“One of the key points is that people’s well-being is related to whether they feel in sync with what the government is doing,” Wu explained. “In our study, people who supported government policies reported higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction, while those who opposed those policies reported lower levels of happiness.”
“Importantly, this applies beyond just whether someone is a Democrat or Republican; it suggests that not only who you are politically, but also whether you perceive the political environment to be consistent with your values, can influence how you feel.”
“We found that political party had a moderate to large effect on happiness, and political party had a large effect on support for government action, as Republicans consistently reported higher happiness and support for government action compared to Democrats,” Wu added.
“The magnitude of the association between support for government action and happiness was small to medium, meaning that while support is an important factor in predicting happiness, it is part of a larger picture that includes other factors such as political party and socio-economic status.”
Although this study provides detailed insights, readers should be careful not to assume that political events are the sole cause of these changes in sentiment. Because the study only followed people for five weeks, the researchers cannot conclusively prove that reading news articles caused changes in happiness. People who are already happier may be naturally more likely to support their government more favorably.
Additionally, the sample included only individuals who identified as Democrats or Republicans. This excludes a large portion of the population who identify as politically independent, so the results may not apply to everyone in the country. The fast pace of the news cycle during this period also meant that participants were reacting to very fresh and immediate changes.
Future studies could follow participants over longer periods of time to see whether these rebounds or heightened emotions last for months or years. Scientists may also study specific psychological coping strategies that help people recover from the stress of political opposition. Examining how these political changes affect marginalized groups who may experience more direct effects from new policies could also provide a more complete picture of national well-being.
The study, “The Politics of Welfare During Democratic Backwardness: How Partisan Affiliation and Support for Government Actions Relate to Happiness and Life Satisfaction,” was authored by Deborah J. Wu, Kyle F. Roe, Stilianos Siropoulos, and Sylvia P. Perry.
