A groundbreaking study out of Finland has shed light on the troubling correlation between subscribing to progressive “woke” ideologies and suffering from higher rates of unhappiness, anxiety and depression.
The research, published last week in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, suggests that individuals who embrace far-left social justice attitudes tend to be less satisfied with their lives compared to their more moderate and conservative peers.
The study, conducted by senior researcher Oskari Lahtinen of the University of Turku, examined nearly 6,000 Finnish citizens ranging from university students to the general population.
Participants were evaluated on their level of agreement with seven statements espousing critical social justice views on topics like racism, diversity in academia, microaggressions, and transgender athletes.
The results paint a stark picture of the ideological and gender divides in Finnish society. A shocking “three out of five women view ‘woke’ ideas positively, but only one out of seven men,” Lahtinen told PsyPost. Indeed, the study found that female participants were more than twice as likely as males to support the progressive beliefs.
‘Woke’ people more likely to be unahppy, anxious and depressed, new study suggests https://t.co/25RQn08ouR pic.twitter.com/QDHcGadc8D
— New York Post (@nypost) March 17, 2024
Unsurprisingly, those in STEM fields and conservative voters were far less inclined to agree with the “woke” statements compared to humanities and social science students, especially women.
But perhaps most concerning are the dramatically heightened rates of mental health issues among those adhering to the far-left ideologies. The study revealed they experienced anxiety at a whopping 67.9% higher rate, depression 32.5% higher, and unhappiness 4.5% higher than their non-woke counterparts.
Lahtinen notes that while this strain of critical social justice rhetoric originated in the United States, it has increasingly infiltrated universities and media in Finland and other Western countries in recent years, often with “much debate” but little hard data. His study aims to quantify the real-world impact of these extremist views.
“The studies were quite robust with a sample size above 5,000 and good psychometric properties,” Lahtinen said. “However, the scale would need to be validated in North American samples in order to know how these attitudes manifest there.”
As progressivism runs rampant on college campuses and in popular culture, this study provides crucial evidence of the damaging psychological effects of subscribing to fringe “woke” ideologies.
For the sake of societal cohesion and individual well-being, these concerning findings cannot be ignored. Further research in the U.S. and beyond is urgently needed to examine the true costs of unchecked social justice fanaticism.
