Survey data reveals capitalism's association with stronger self-perceived meaningful life in college students, indicating complexities tied to identity factors.
This study examines how economic beliefs (support for capitalism or socialism) relates to the self-perceived power to live a meaningful life. This study uses survey data collected among college students. The findings show that students who support capitalism report a higher self-perceived power to live a meaningful life than those who favor socialism. In addition, straight, Christian, international students and public high school students tend to report a stronger self-perceived power to live a meaningful life. On the other hand, nontraditional gender students and business majors report the opposite. This study tested the results for potential endogeneity and hidden bias. In addition, this study assesses the robustness of the findings by using life satisfaction as an alternative outcome variable. Most key results remain robust.
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Marroquín et al. (2026) studied this question.
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