![Studies Prove: Knowing More Than Other People Makes You Happy!](https://fresnoalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/4020982037_62bee53ef3_b-620x413.jpg)
By Kaylia Metcalfe
OK, Iāll admit it. I skim.
I see headlines, I nod along if I agree, shake my head if I donāt and many times move on to the next sensational headline in my Facebook newsfeed. (Or, as the case may be, the next photo of someoneās baby/cat/lunch.)
āGay and Bi Men Are Happier Than Straight Dudesā Sure, I think, why not? I file it away to maybe pull out in some future conversation and then move on.
I know Iām not the only one who skims and who sometimes just reads headlines. Letās face it, life is short and there are a lot of interesting/sexy/shocking headlines out there to read! And a lot of baby/pet/food photos to ālike.ā
Butā¦
But we need to be careful. We need to be aware of our own assumptions and blind spots. Letās say that headline had said āBlonds are happier than brunette women!ā Well, as a brunette woman I would have been dismayed and would probably have wanted to read the article hoping that the title was misleading, hoping that it was only Bottle Blonds who were happier, hoping that at the very least redheads had been proven to be even less happy than us brown-haired people.
But if the headline doesnāt go against what I either already believe or, better yet, what I āwantā to believe, I might not bother to read further. Like the āDudeā article from before.
Hereās another trap. Letās say that the headline makes me happy but it sounds just a bit too good to be true: āBrunettes Proven to Be Smarter and Sexier Than Blonds.ā There is a chance that I might look and see where the article originated from. There is a big difference if the headline comes from The Onion or, say, the American Journal of Science.
Letās go back to the original headline: āGay and Bi Men Are Happier Than Straight Dudes.ā I would be shocked if the AJS used the word dude, so letās see who is making this claim.
The Advocate!
Thank goodness! A reputable gay-friendly media source! This isnāt a fly-by-night blogger, this isnāt satire. I mean, sure, the Advocate is biased, but it is biased my way and it does tend to cite its sources.
So there, the headline stays and we all breathe a sigh of relief.
But waitāthereās more. Travel with me into the rabbit hole of actually reading the article, actually using our critical thinking skills, of moving pastāgaspāthe headline.
ā¦ where we learn that the study actually āfound that queer folks who had come out to their family and friends āhave less anxiety, depression, and burnoutā than those who hadnāt.ā
So, right off the bat we are talking about a group of people who have come out and who are glad about it. Not just general population gay and bi and straight men. I hope a red flag of concern just went up in your head.
Letās keep reading!
ā¦ where we learn that the study that āprovedā this extraordinary claim involved āthe study of 87 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual Canadians ā some out, some still in the closetĀ ā
ā¦.
First off, Iām not sure how my lesbian sisters and female bi sisters appreciate being ignored in the articleās titleā¦ unless we are now all ādudesā and I just didnāt get the memo.
Second, and more importantly, 87 people? 87?
87 people that represent four different sexual orientationsā¦ and three of those orientations split into the āInā or āOutā category? Letās pretend that they attempted to do the splits as equally as possible (even though we have no way of knowing for sure). That would be 21.75 people in each sexual orientationā¦. Meaning that we would have 65 people in the LGBT community and 22(ish) in the Straight community. And of the 65, maybe half are still in the closet and half arenāt? Or more? Or less? How did they find these people? What rubric did they use to determine happiness? Wealth? Family Acceptance? Sex Life? Religion? Travel? Education? Number of Hours on Facebook? Ohā¦ and letās not forget that they are Canadian!
I have no problem with Canadaā¦ but letās take a quick look at the state of LGBT rights in Canada: LGBT rights in Canada are the most advanced in the Americas. LGBT Canadians have most of the same legal rights as non-LGBT citizens, and are extended more legal rights than many other nations where homosexuality is legal. Since 2005, Canada has offered civil marriage rights nationwide to same-sex couples. Canada was the third nation in the world where same-sex marriages were legally performed (commencing in 2003 in the province of Ontario), the fourth nation in the world to perform same-sex marriages nationwide, the first nation in the Americas to perform such marriages nationwide, and performed the first ever legally recognized same-sex marriage in the world (January 2001).
Waitā¦ you might be sayingā¦ small sample size aside, surly the study was done by a reputable organization! Well, sure. The study in question was performed by the University of Montrealā¦ Montreal, by the way,Ā has the second-largest population of LGBT people in Canada and the largest gay district in North America.
Which means that if you take a (statistically TINY) sample of people from one of the most accepting cities in one of the most accepting countries in the worldā¦ you find people who are generally happy with who they are after coming out.
What this tells us, really, is that there are a lot of happy gay and bi men (and possibly women) in Montreal. Well, at least 65. Probably.
But wait… my favorite part of the article is this line: āThe study is a surprise since it comes on the heels of other studies that pointed toĀ high levels of depressionĀ in LGBT folks, especially during the coming-out process.ā
What other studies you might wonder?
The article links to a study done by McGill Hill in which using āTwo-hundred and twenty participants recruited through multiple sampling strategiesā¦.ā found that internalized homophobia is a factor in depression, anxiety, and suicide in the gay and lesbian populationā¦ especially during the time of coming out.
There are other studies that basically say the same thingā¦.dozens of them. Some with good sample sizes, some without. Some done by reputable sources, some not so much.
The point is that this ādudeā study shouldnāt be a surprise; it should be an eye rolling object lesson in how not to do a study.
So, letās get back to our headline. āGay and Bi Men Happier than Straight Dudes.ā
Sensational and optimistic? You bettcha! Misleading? Yeah. Possibly inaccurate? Definitely.
Now whether or not you are glad you went down the rabbit hole with me, the point remains: When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
So next time you see an article on Facebook (or wherever you get your news) take a moment to go ahead and read past the headline. Proven right or proven wrong, you will be more knowledgeable for taking the time.
I will leave you with two quotes and the URLs to the articles in question.
āInformation is not knowledge.āāAlbert Einstein
āBeware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.āāGeorge Bernard Shaw
The URLs to the articles referenced herein are www.advocate.com/health/mental-wellness/2013/01/30/gay-and-bi-men-are-happier-straight-dudes and www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15868835.
*****
Kaylia Metcalfe is a brunette writer, blogger and activist in Fresno. She is a cofounder of Skeptics Without a Cause and serves on the Gay Central Valley Board of Directors. Her short story collection āLinksā is available on www.amazon.com. Contact her at kayliametcalfe@gmail.com.