New research published in sociology forum suggest that among political progressives, participation in identity politics tends to be associated with lower levels of mental health. The findings suggest that a focus on social identity and collective protest may explain why progressive people report more depression and anxiety than conservative people.
Over the past decade, scientists have observed widening disparities in mental health among people of different political ideologies. Specifically, the data provide evidence that progressives generally report lower levels of mental well-being than conservatives. George Yancey, a sociology professor at Baylor University, wanted to explore the reasons behind this widening gap.
The inspiration for this study came from outside the academic realm. “I was doing some consulting work and a lawyer asked me about the negative impact anti-racism training had on program participants,” Yancey explained. “I had previously studied the relative lack of effectiveness of attitude change programs, but I had not considered whether these programs, or the identity politics that motivate them, could reduce happiness.”
This thought process was consistent with emerging data on psychological health. “My interest was piqued when I saw research starting about 10 years ago showing declines in happiness among young people,” Yancey said. “When we looked at the data from the Baylor Religion Survey, we realized we could test our hypothesis about a possible relationship between identity politics beliefs and happiness.”
Mental health disparities widened markedly around 2012. This period coincided with a cultural shift sometimes referred to as the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening refers to a period in which society’s attention largely shifted to systemic oppression and the struggles of marginalized groups.
Yancey found that this cultural shift placed a strong emphasis on identity politics. Identity politics is a political approach in which people form alliances and prioritize actions based on common social identities, such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. He designed this study to test whether a focus on these identity-based issues was associated with lower happiness among politically progressive individuals.
To explore these questions, researchers analyzed data from the 2021 Baylor Religion Survey. This study provided a representative sample of U.S. adults. The initial sample included 1,336 people. The data were mathematically weighted to adjust for nonresponse, resulting in a final group of 1,248 respondents.
The study asked participants a variety of questions to measure their mental health. Participants rated their own feelings of depression, including how often they felt sad or depressed. They also rated their anxiety by indicating how often they felt anxious, nervous, or restless.
Finally, this study measured participants’ sense of personal control over their lives. Sense of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can solve problems on their own, rather than feeling completely powerless. All these individual responses were combined to create self-rated scores for depression, anxiety, and personal control.
To measure political beliefs, respondents rated their overall political orientation, ranging from very conservative to very progressive. The survey also includes specific questions to assess engagement in identity politics. One variable asked about a person’s willingness to participate in political protests specifically aimed at addressing racial inequality.
Another question asked respondents whether they thought the government should enact stronger laws protecting the rights of sexual minorities. To provide a comparison with identity politics, the researchers also measured class-based progressive views. This was done by creating an index of questions asking whether governments should provide public goods such as healthcare and free university tuition.
Researchers used statistical models to examine how these different political views were related to mental health. Initial calculations showed a consistent pattern in the data. General progressive political beliefs were strongly associated with lower levels of well-being, including depression, anxiety, and a sense of control.
The introduction of specific identity politics measurements has completely changed the mathematical relationship. Researchers found that participating in protests against racial inequality and supporting protections for sexual minorities explained lower happiness scores. In statistical terminology, this effect is known as mediation.
Mediation occurs when a particular factor completely explains the relationship between two other variables. In this study, prevailing progressive ideology only predicted depression and a lower sense of control because of its association with identity politics. When researchers took into account the variable of identity politics, the general association between being progressive and feeling depressed or helpless disappeared.
Focusing specifically on anxiety, identity politics measures did not completely eliminate the relationship between progressive views and lower happiness, but they accounted for a large portion of the relationship. Yancey noted that the results were in line with his initial expectations. “It’s not that surprising,” he said. “I approached this study thinking that the expansion of identity politics might be contributing to the recent decline in happiness, and this study suggests that this is a possibility.”
Class-based political measures did not have the same effect. Wanting more government spending on health care and universities doesn’t explain the happiness gap. This suggests that people who hold progressive economic views but avoid identity politics tend to have similar levels of mental health as other people.
To ensure the findings were robust, the researchers also performed additional analysis using mathematical techniques to account for missing survey responses. This increased the model sample size to 1,131 participants. The results were consistent and strengthened the evidence that identity politics variables are primarily responsible for the decline in happiness reported by political progressives.
Researchers suggest that identity politics requires constant attention to systemic injustice. Focusing on external social forces that individuals cannot easily change tends to reduce their internal locus of control. Locus of control is a psychological concept that describes how much power people feel they have over the events of their lives.
Although the study provides evidence of a link between identity politics and decreased happiness, Yancey notes that the survey data was collected at a single point in time, meaning the direction of the effect remains unclear. “I’m not claiming causation because you can’t tell with static survey data,” Yancey said. “But there seems to be a relationship between identity politics and happiness.”
“Whether identity politics attracts less happy individuals or whether attachment to identity politics reduces happiness, the calculus that drives identity politics must include the possibility that those who actively participate in it may be less happy,” Yancey explained. “Identity politics can have the additional cost of promoting systems that respond to declines in well-being or creating declines in well-being themselves.”
Researchers want to ensure that the public does not view these results as absolute evidence of psychological harm. “I don’t claim to know that identity politics leads to lower happiness,” Yancey pointed out. “Ideally, longitudinal or experimental studies could emerge to answer that question. Readers should know that all I’ve done is document a link between identity politics and decreased happiness.”
Future studies that follow individuals over several years will be needed to determine whether the adoption of identity politics precedes declines in mental health. “Once funding is found, we would like to investigate whether the effects of identity politics adaptation have a causal relationship with the experimental design,” Yancey said. “If we had enough funding, it would also be possible to investigate this through long-term analysis.”
The study, “Identity Politics, Political Ideology, and Well-Being: Is Identity Politics Good for Our Well-Being?” was written by George Yancey.
