🌅 The Health Gap Between Liberals and Conservatives

SOURCE

Elder & O’Brian (2026)

WHAT TO KNOW

• A new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found the health gap between American liberals and conservatives has widened over the past two decades, and factors like income, age, and geography can’t explain the difference. Analyzing more than two decades of health and survey data from tens of thousands of Americans, the team found the gap in health outcomes is attributable to a widening ideological gap between liberals and conservatives when it comes to trust both in doctors and the broader medical system. The health gap between conservatives and liberals has been documented for some time, however, prior to the present study, researchers weren’t sure whether political ideology itself was the driver.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Prior to 2010, the researchers found there was no true difference in health outcomes between conservatives and liberals. However, by the end of the 2010s, distrust regarding doctors and medicine began to spread among conservatives, widening the gap and making it statistically significant. The gap then accelerated during the COVID pandemic, as conservatives broadly fought public health measures like mask mandates and vaccine guidelines. Now, conservatives’ medical distrust has extended to things like keeping up with medications for chronic conditions and seeing a doctor after experiencing chest pains. From 2020 to 2022, only 0.2% of “very liberal” respondents died of internal causes (e.g., heart disease, cancer, and stroke), compared with 1.34% of “very conservative” respondents.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Health isn’t the only gap between conservatives and liberals: research has long uncovered a happiness gap between the two groups. For some time, conservatives have consistently reported higher levels of happiness than liberals, with much of the outcomes focused on conservatives’ beliefs regarding social structures and hierarchies. Conservatives are also less likely than liberals to get upset by social and economic inequalities, while the least happy liberals also tend to be those more focused on issues like identity, social justice, and oppression of marginalized groups.