The General Social Survey asked respondents, "When you think about yourself, how important is your ethnic group membership to your sense of who you are? Answers ranged from very important (4) to not important at all (1). They were also asked about how generally happy they are these days with answers ranging from very happy (3) to not too happy (1). Here are the means for happiness listed by level of ethnic identification (sample size = 1,087):
Mean happiness
How important is your ethnicity?
Very
2.28
Moderate
2.23
Slightly 2.17
Not at all 2.17
On average, whites who are more ethnocentric are happier. The effect is statistically significant but small (around a one-fifth of a standard deviation between the extreme categories).
It seems to me that ethnic or racial pride is a form of self-esteem, and feeling good about oneself promotes happiness.
