BEND — Optimism is in short supply these days, according to a survey of Oregonians by the Values and Beliefs Center.

And more than half those surveyed feel Oregon is headed down the wrong path, according to the survey of 1,400 residents from Jan. 13-20.

“It is sad that people are unhappy,” said Amaury Vogel, Oregon Values and Beliefs Center associate executive director. “I think it’s more sad that they are not hopeful that things are going to get better and that they feel their elected officials are not going to make progress in making things better.”

Rising prices, two years of pandemic-related restrictions and a distrust for politicians are contributing to the amount of optimism people feel.

The emotional climate of Oregonians is a complex issue, said Peter Sparks, Oregon State University-Cascades senior instructor and program coordinator for the psychology program.

“There is likely to be many complex issues that have led people to be pessimistic, and helping people become more optimistic will be difficult,” Sparks said of the survey results.

According to the survey, 53% of those surveyed say they’re optimistic about 2022, compared to roughly the same period in 2021 when 59% surveyed said they were very or somewhat optimistic.

More than half those surveyed also felt that the state was headed in the wrong direction, a feeling that is about the same as it was in February 2021, according to the results.

“They (lawmakers) will be able to make significant progress in benefitting the opinions of Portlanders, but certainly not the whole Oregon, which is largely at odds with Portland and its politics,” wrote Savannah Singleton, a Deschutes County resident, in a response to a survey question.

A deeper dive into the results shows that 62% of those surveyed are not optimistic that the Legislature and the governor will be able to make any progress on key issues during the current legislative session.

“Despite a nearly two-thirds majority in the Legislature, somehow I suspect that the nut job whiney third will find some way to draw attention to themselves and how they’re being personally oppressed instead of doing any meaningful Democratic debates,” wrote Brenda Pace, a Deschutes County resident who responded to the survey.

The survey asked about the state’s direction and mental well-being. The margin of error ranges from 1.6% to 2.6% due to rounding. The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center is an independent, nonpartisan organization. The center partnered with Pamplin Media Group and EO Media Group, which owns The Observer and The Bulletin.

In the survey, suburban respondents were more optimistic than rural residents. Yet rural residents said they were less likely to believe the state is headed in the right direction than other Oregonians, according to the survey.

Roughly a quarter of the respondents defined themselves as from rural areas and 37% were suburban.

The younger the respondents were and the farther west of the Cascades they lived, the more optimistic the responses about 2022, according to the survey. Generally, those who were ages 45 to 74 were not optimistic about the year, according to the results. And Black, Indigenous and other people of color were significantly more likely to say they were hopeful about 2022.

“I have lived many years growing up in Portland and now live outside of Portland in a rural area,” wrote Aurora Kay Sancoy, who lives in Lane County. “One thing I have learned is that politics differ geographically.”