And the liberal from NPR disagrees with the notion (well, the ideas behind the study, at least).

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5293039

Whiny Kids Make Conservative Adults. Really?

March 21, 2006 · An article in today's Toronto Star looks at a new study that purports to show that whiny children grow up to be conservatives. The study, published in the Journal of Research in Personality, is interesting in that it is longitudinal. It studied 95 kids for decades. UC Berkeley professor Jack Block found that:

"The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

"The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective."

Now, after reading this (and seeing it everywhere on the Internet) the study bothered me. The Toronto Star says Block acknowledges Berkeley isn't the bellwether of the country politically, but:

"He says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics."

What bothers me here is the assumption that tradition and authority are found only in conservative politics. That is a big assumption. The dogmatic nature of the left can be just as rigid and stultifying, and many people of that political persuasion have a damned poor view of heterodoxy. (Go here for an article in Slate by Will Saletan on abortion orthodoxy on the left, and I would throw in gender roles, race, labor, and a few others. And don't even get me started on this piece from The New York Times today about tourist orthodox lefties swallowing Hugo Chavez's propaganda hook, line and sinker.)

If you're looking for a comfortable, predictable line that helps think your whiny thoughts for you, I'd say leftist ideology is also great, and would suffice.

A more interesting question might be, (instead of defining left as being open and loose, and right as being tight and controlled) what personality traits of children turn into political and ideological rigidity of any sort as adults? My money is that it's the whiny ones. So next time, give 'em something to really cry about.

3:40 p.m. EST | 3-21-2006 |

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 5:23 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2006 5:22:02 PM

haha interesting...

i didn't know that whiny and confident are opposites. also, i had no idea you could quantify whininess.

sorry, i won't give credit to any "scientific" study that actually uses the words "still hanging loose". what is that anyway? how exactly can you say someone is hanging loose.

i'd probably argue that your socio-econnomic situation has more to do with if you grow up to be conservative or not. - i.e. are you parents conservative, did they teach you about politics, did you attend a church, a conservative church, what type of education did you receive, what part of the country did you grow up in, what jobs were prevalent in your family and community, etc.

3/21/2006 5:38:20 PM

anyone who complains about this study is actually a whiny closet conservative.

3/21/2006 5:46:27 PM

You know, I think kids have a tendency to be most like their parents in terms of political views, with a slight tendency to vote democratic due to the more progressive ideals.

I did a fun survey on several hundred people in my high school, and the correlation was there.

That article is a bit too shady sounding to be true. I mean, hanging loose... and the confident kids and the whiny kids? Sounds like something you'd read on the onion.

3/21/2006 5:50:39 PM

The article isn't going to hold itself to the stricter standards (hopefully) that the actual journal report would be to. Pretty much any study is going to be "dumbed-down" for the media.

Regardless, correlation doesn't prove causation.

3/21/2006 6:18:09 PM

Wow, a new slant on the "liberals are intellectuals and conservatives are dumb rednecks" elitist perspective from the left.

3/21/2006 7:27:46 PM

I know plenty of guys that were arrogant douches growing up, yet turned into conservatives.

3/21/2006 7:32:31 PM

so when liberals grow up, they'll be conservative?

3/21/2006 10:21:21 PM

Quote :

"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains. - Winston Churchill "

V No, I am gonna side with Winston Churchill on this one. I am betting that he knew a little more about the world and politics than Joshnumbers

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 10:53 PM. Reason : V]

3/21/2006 10:45:55 PM

^thats backwards

3/21/2006 10:51:52 PM

Obviously there are heartless young liberals and idiot old conservatives, but a young conservative is garaunteed to be heartless and an old liberal is garaunteed to be an idiot.

3/21/2006 11:05:51 PM

no you're a fag



I helped save the world from Fascism, you've done shit

3/21/2006 11:06:24 PM

Corrected for biases in household income, etc?
Rich kids tend to be whinier ---> rich kids tend to grow up conservative

Perhaps the link is merely a manifestation of another link

3/22/2006 12:14:03 AM

Y'think?

Bottom of:

http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=393998

3/22/2006 12:17:43 AM

Of course, this couldn't be part of the attitude that "everyone that disagrees with me is obviously whining/stupid/etc".

3/22/2006 7:31:23 AM

Obviously not. The results include kids who had whiny dispositions before they had an inkling of political viewpoints. Try reading the article.

And I'm not even saying it's a good study or even good science.

3/22/2006 6:24:17 PM

It's a little depressing that there's a correlation between people's parents' political affiliation and their own.

And of course as an elitist liberal douche I see the correlation; whiny kids aren't so much complainers as they are "me-me-me" types, and you can see where I'm going with that.



[Edited on March 23, 2006 at 1:57 AM. Reason : .]

3/23/2006 1:53:38 AM

I think what we're all forgetting is that liberals tend to become whiney babies as they grow older where conservatives who are whiney in youth grow out of it.

3/23/2006 8:33:14 AM

^ Sounds about right to me.

3/23/2006 10:35:03 AM

truly, what you have said is universally true

what great wisdom you possess

3/23/2006 11:30:13 AM

I guess that "couldn't be part of the attitude that "everyone that disagrees with me is obviously whining/stupid/etc".

3/23/2006 11:53:29 AM

Quote :

"I am betting that he knew a little more about the world and politics than Joshnumbers "

I am betting I know more about world politics in 2006.

3/23/2006 12:11:05 PM