Quote :

"This research consistently finds that conservatism is positively associated with heightened epistemic concerns for order, structure, closure, certainty, consistency, simplicity, and familiarity, as well as existential concerns such as perceptions of danger, sensitivity to threat, and death anxiety"

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology-john-hibbing-negativity-bias?google_editors_picks=true

7/15/2014 10:44:29 AM

The need for simplicity and certainty are what I see most often. It seems hard to get conservatives to accept that their simplistic perspective or adage or heuristic or rubric for judging a situation is inadequate for characterizing that situation. This explains why conservatives seem to be at odds with scientists in policy too. Science is inherently uncertain.

7/15/2014 10:51:48 AM

I often get the impression that they refuse to see gray. It's black or it's white.

7/15/2014 10:55:26 AM

I feel sorry for Nebraskans who wasted their tax dollars on this "research."

Quote :

"Twenty-six different scholars or groups of scholars then got an opportunity to tee off on the paper, firing off a variety of responses. But as Hibbing and colleagues note in their final reply, out of those responses, "22 or 23 accept the general idea" of a conservative negativity bias, and simply add commentary to aid in the process of "modifying it, expanding on it, specifying where it does and does not work," and so on. Only about three scholars or groups of scholars seem to reject the idea entirely. "

I wonder how many of those 26 scholars who reviewed this load of horseshit also aligned with liberal ideals. What kind of bias by the researchers plays into this article. You're being awfully simplistic yourself if you think bias didn't drive this.

Mother Jones...the The Blaze of the liberal media.

Also gotta love how they almost attempt to compare conservatives to Neanderthals.

7/15/2014 10:57:53 AM

it's science, of course conservatives aren't going to believe this study

7/15/2014 11:00:56 AM

^^ it came up on google news, but the info checks out. And they looked at the full spectrum, the article notes some liberal trends.

Ironically you are demonstrating the need for closure and certainty the article talks about.

7/15/2014 11:51:44 AM

I know this is really generalizing, but in my experience, conservatives oftentimes have a lame sense of humor. See WRAL comments or the PackPride message board for examples.

7/15/2014 2:38:33 PM

according to rjrumfel in another thread, WRAL comments are liberal

7/15/2014 2:45:38 PM

I have seen other studies that show the same things. Naturally they just think its a part of a liberal conspiracy.

7/15/2014 5:25:17 PM

Reality is a liberal conspiracy to undermine the conservative world-view.

7/15/2014 8:19:13 PM

just a couple things here:

1) lots of back-patting in this thread

2) these particular traits are quite advantageous in certain situations (work, some business endeavors, etc)

im not sure why this thread feels the need to ridicule?

7/16/2014 10:39:25 AM

1) there's only 10 posts in this thread from 6 people.
2) that's very true and a good point.

and just to clarify, i'm really not trying to ridicule, just pointing out general observations that i've made in my day-to-day experiences with conservatives.

7/16/2014 10:43:48 AM

ok, fair enough.

exactly half the users in this thread are ridiculing.

i also wanted to clarify "being conservative" is useful beyond the Pleistocene.

while im not often thrilled by user rjrumfel i believe his mother jones criticism is justified.

7/16/2014 10:50:33 AM

I can agree with all of that.

7/16/2014 11:03:25 AM

Quote :

"Disputes between those holding differing political views are ubiquitous and deep-seated, and they often follow common, recognizable lines. The supporters of tradition and stability, sometimes referred to as conservatives, do battle with the supporters of innovation and reform, sometimes referred to as liberals. Understanding the correlates of those distinct political orientations is probably a prerequisite for managing political disputes, which are a source of social conflict that can lead to frustration and even bloodshed. A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence documents a multitude of ways in which liberals and conservatives differ from each other in purviews of life with little direct connection to politics, from tastes in art to desire for closure and from disgust sensitivity to the tendency to pursue new information, but the central theme of the differences is a matter of debate. In this article, we argue that one organizing element of the many differences between liberals and conservatives is the nature of their physiological and psychological responses to features of the environment that are negative. Compared with liberals, conservatives tend to register greater physiological responses to such stimuli and also to devote more psychological resources to them. Operating from this point of departure, we suggest approaches for refining understanding of the broad relationship between political views and response to the negative. We conclude with a discussion of normative implications, stressing that identifying differences across ideological groups is not tantamount to declaring one ideology superior to another."

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9292100&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0140525X13001192

7/16/2014 11:08:09 AM

Quote :

"i also wanted to clarify "being conservative" is useful beyond the Pleistocene."

I'm not convinced anyone derives any utility from political ideology itself. There are plenty of successful liberals and conservatives in business.

There is a benefit to having similar ideologies as your tribesmen, but that's a product of tribalism, not the ideology itself.

So conservatism (and liberalism for that matter) are not immune to criticism on the basis of their "usefulness" IMO.

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 1:10 PM. Reason : .]

7/16/2014 1:10:06 PM

Yes, and liberals tend to score horribly on economics.

The libertarian rags always love running with these stories to make the coke/Pepsi party faithful look bad.

7/17/2014 7:04:31 AM

Quote :

"I'm not convinced anyone derives any utility from political ideology itself."

Except politicians and talking heads.

7/17/2014 7:11:18 AM