Enough Already wrote:
>
> It has been suggested more than once that arch-conservatives lack an
> "empathy gene," which may be discovered at some point. You can spot
> future 'wingers as early as kindergarten, with their me-first, I-got-
> mine attitudes.
>
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hannahk/bulletin.pdf
Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition
Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates
theories of personality (authoritarianism, dogmatismintolerance of
ambiguity),
epistemic and existential needs (for closure, regulatory focus, terror
management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system
justification). A meta-analysis (88 samples, 12 countries, 22,818 cases)
confirms that several psychological variables predict political
conservatism:
death anxiety (weighted mean r = .50); system instability (.47);
dogmatism - intolerance of ambiguity (.34); openness to experience (.32);
uncertainty tolerance (.27); needs for order, structure, and closure
(.26);
integrative complexity (.20); fear of threat and loss (.18); and
self-esteem
(.09). The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change
and
justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary
situationally
and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat.
Nice quote from the paper:
This work, although speculative, suggests that
fear, danger, threat, and aggression may figure more prominently
in the unconscious motivations of conservatives than liberals.
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