The news was widely dispersed on the Internet: scientists allegedly found out that liberal youth is more than other groups of the population is subject to mental disorders. We decided to check if this is so.

Back in 2023, Twitte on this study published a project SVTV News, and at the end of March 2024, the publication told about the exposure of young liberals to mental disorders "Mriya". Similar messages can be found on social networks (for example, in "VKontakte") And on the blog-platforms ("Picabu" Livejournal, "Zen"). Some publications specify that we are talking primarily about girls with liberal views - many posts Accompanied by photographs of activists with feminist posters. The popular Telegram channels wrote about this: "Pozdnyakov 3.0"(420,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Sledgehammer 18+"(71 000),"Evil Gorynych: how to lose the country"(66 000), Nina Vatt (50,000), "Boiling water"(44,000) and others.

Although in 2024, in some Russian -language sources, the study on the prevalence of mental illness among different groups of the population was represented as fresh, these data are by no means new. In the English -language segment of the Internet, such statistics were published earlier - for example, The Washington Free Beacon It wrote about the study back in 2021. The authors of this American conservative publication, in turn, referred to The thread On Twitter (now - X), written by Zakom Goldberg, scientists from the Manhattan Institute of Political Research (USA). He analyzed the results survey, held in March 2020 by the American non-profit organization Pew Research Center and dedicated to how the restrictions introduced shortly before due to Covid-19 pandemia were reflected in the lives of Americans. This study was attended by 11,537 people. It is important to note that this is not a random sample, as often happens in such surveys: all respondents are included in Group of American trends - A base of more than 10,000 people who were recruited by the Pew Research Center for many years and regularly take part in research.

As always happens during sociological surveys, the organizers recorded some characteristics of the respondents, such as gender, age, marital status and level of education. They were also asked to describe their own political views: as extremely liberal, liberal, moderate, conservative or extremely conservative. Also, the participants in the study asked if they had ever told doctors or other medical workers that they have mental disorders. It should be noted that the receipt of all these data was not the goal of the survey - the researchers used information about their permanent respondents and combined them with answers about anti -like measures.

Source: Pew Research Center. The full version of the image is available by click.

The question of mental illness was positively answered by 15.5% of respondents: 66% of them are women, 33% were men. Among these women, 35% stated that they adhere to moderate views, 45% - liberal or extremely liberal, 18% - conservative or extremely conservative. Among men, the numbers looked like: 36%, 42% and 21%, respectively. Recall that we are talking about shares from 15.5% of respondents who answered the question in the affirmative. As for the age, they have ever been told about mental disorders, people of liberal and extremely liberal views aged 18 to 29 were more often than other groups. Thus, in terms of retelling of statistical data, Goldberg, apparently, interpreted the study correctly.

However, in many publications about this Pew Research Center survey, concepts are being replaced: the data show not the percentage of respondents that are currently suffering from mental disorders, but the share of those who admitted that he had ever been diagnosed with mental disorder. That is, it is likely that among those who answered negatively, there are people who simply did not seek a doctor for advice on this issue or did not dare to tell the researchers about this. Mental disorders, unlike most other diseases, are sufficiently Stigmatized. Many are afraid that others will be worse to relate to them if they learn about such a problem with health, or they themselves are ashamed of their alleged diagnosis, therefore they do not turn to specialists, even if there are reasons for this. Political scientists Markthat among conservatives this phenomenon is more expressed. In recent years, the psychiatric community has an active struggle with stigma related to mental disorders, including publishing numerous materials on this subject on the Internet. It is logical that it is the young people who actively use the Internet that are more willing to address the doctors if they are worried about psychological problems, and less often they are afraid to talk about this to outsiders. By the way, the authors of most publications mentioned at the beginning of this analysis also stigmatize mental illness, and speak negatively about the supporters of liberal views (this is evident by rhetoric and selected illustrations).

Since the survey in question was not devoted to the connection between political views and the presence of mental disorders, its authors did not pay much attention to this topic. Therefore, it is difficult to understand from the study how its results reflect the real differences in mental health, and how caused by the stigmatization or simply differences in the main demographic characteristics of the respondents (for example, the level of income or place of residence, and as a result - the availability of medical care). Goldberg in one of the tweets with research analysis recognizes: The results can be like that precisely because liberals simply often often seek medical help.

Source: MHM55, CC by-SA 4.0Via Wikimedia Commons

In addition, their personal idea of what is considered mental disorders could affect the answers of the respondents. So, according to the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical guidance on mental disorders (DSM-5), used in American psychiatry, such diseases include stuttering. This is not quite obvious to people far from medicine, so drawing conclusions only on the basis of the self -esteem of respondents are groundless.

Liberals like found out Researchers from Colombian University, in general, are inclined to spend more time in reflection on stressing topics, such as racial injustice, inequality of income or climate change. At the same time, according to surveys, conservatives on average are more pleased with their lives and more often report psychological well -being. However, scientists of the University of California who analyzed the data of online surveys, statements of politicians and publication of users of social networks, They saythat it could be a delusion. Compared to people of conservative views, liberals were often used in speech a positive-emotional language, as well as more often and more sincerely smiled in photographs.

Thus, the statement that has spread through the media and social networks that young liberals are more often than other groups of the population by mental disorders, is based on a study whose authors did not study the relationship between mental health and political views of a person and, accordingly, did not conclude about this. Moreover, the presence of such diseases in respondents was determined solely on the answer to the question "Did medical workers ever tell you that you suffer from mental disorders?" These answers could be distorted for many reasons: from constraint, admit the presence of problems with mental health to a banal lack of knowledge about what is considered such a problem. Yes, and to argue that someone does not have a mental disorder, only on the basis that it was not previously diagnosed to a person is incorrect. On the other hand, since the question was not about the current moment of time, but about the whole life of the respondents, it is likely that one of those who answered this question positively has long cured their disorder.

Photo on the cover: Stefan Müller (Climate Stuff, 2 Mio Views) from Germany, CC by 2.0Via Wikimedia Commons