Rich Travsky wrote:
> 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.
>
"For more than half century, psychologists have been tracking
the hypothesis that different psychological motives and tendencies
underlie ideological differences between the political left and the
right."
The premise is wrong. There is no substantive difference between the
political left and right. Where 'the right' is said to sup****t capital
punishment, 'the left' opposes. 'The left' sup****ts 2nd and 3d trimester
non-medical induced abortions and 'the right' opposes. Both attitudes
conflict with the culture's moral imperative for protection of life.
This is an example of the superficial nature of political competition
which is directed by party ideologues in order to stake values as
proprietary to one party or the other.
The use of labels to describe dynamic socio-political attitudes not only
creates divisiveness and confusion, it guarantees erroneous answers to
naive questions.
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