A newly-released Finnish study found a strong alignment with so-called “woke” beliefs and increased mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.

The study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, “examined the prevalence of critical social justice attitudes in different populations and the scale’s correlations with other variables of interest, including well-being variables: anxiety, depression, and happiness.”

CSJAS (critical social justice attitude scales) “was correlated with depression, anxiety, and (lack of) happiness, but not more so than being on the political left was,” the researchers wrote.

Oskari Lahtinen, study author and senior researcher at the INVEST Research Flagship Centre at the University of Turku, said he “had been paying attention to a development in American universities, where a new discourse on social justice became prevalent in the 2010s.”

“While critical social justice (or intersectional or ‘woke’) discourse draws mainly from dynamics within American society it has now surfaced in other Western countries as well. The arrival of a critical social justice (often called ‘woke’) discourse sparked much debate in Finnish media in the last couple of years,” he commented, according to PsyPost.

“This debate was largely data-free and it could thus be considered a worthwhile question to study how prevalent these attitudes are. No reliable and valid instrument existed prior to the study to assess the extent and prevalence of these attitudes in different populations, so I set out to develop one,” he added.

The New York Post reports:

The pilot survey included 851 adult participants most of whom were associated with the University of Turku. After refining the initial scale, the study was expanded to a more representative national sample of 5,000 participants, distributed via Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper.

In the end, their final Critical Social Justice Attitude Scale identified seven truisms of woke people:

  • “If white people have on average a higher level of income than black people, it is because of racism.”
  • “University reading lists should include fewer white or European authors.”
  • “Microaggressions should be challenged often and actively.”
  • “Trans* women who compete with women in sports are not helping women’s rights.” (reverse scored)
  • “We don’t need to talk more about the color of people’s skin.”
  • “A white person cannot understand how a black person feels equally well as another black person.”
  • “A member of a privileged group can adopt features or cultural elements of a less privileged group.” (reverse scored)

“The gender divide was probably most surprising to me,” Lahtinen told PsyPost of Finnish attitudes. “Three out of five women view ‘woke’ ideas positively, but only one out of seven men.”

This was especially true of women in fields such as social sciences, education, and humanities. By contrast, participants who worked in STEM were more likely to critique social justice efforts associated with being woke.

From PsyPost:

The study also uncovered variations in critical social justice attitudes across different demographic and social groups. Higher levels of agreement with critical social justice were notably present among individuals who identified with left-wing political parties and female university students in fields such as social sciences, education, and humanities. On the other hand, individuals associated with STEM fields and right-wing political affiliations tended to show lower agreement with critical social justice principles.

An intriguing aspect of the study was its exploration of the relationship between critical social justice and mental well-being. Lahtinen found a correlation between higher agreement with critical social justice attitudes and increased reports of anxiety and depression. Agreement with the statement “If white people have on average a higher income than black people, it is because of racism” exhibited the largest positive correlation with anxiety and depression, and the largest negative correlation with happiness.

However, these associations were more strongly correlated with participants’ political orientation than with critical social justice attitudes per se. Specifically, being on the political left was more predictive of lower mental well-being than high critical social justice scores alone. This suggests that the link between critical social justice attitudes and mental health is complex and may be mediated by broader political and ideological beliefs.

The new research provides unique insight into critical social justice attitudes and their implications in contemporary society. But the study’s focus on Finland necessitates caution when generalizing its findings to other contexts.

Read the full study, titled ‘Construction and validation of a scale for assessing critical social justice attitudes,’ HERE.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.


We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.