Study: Whiny Children Become Conservatives

[wyldwolf]

HA! I KNEW It!

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. 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.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142722231554&call_pageid=970599119419

[Canuckistanian]

1. Hannity mentioned this today

Another librul plot, blah, blah. Where did they get their funding, blah, blah. Ought to be punished, blah, blah...

In other words, he was being whiny, paranoid, and relying on others to fix his problems.

[nankerphelge]

5. I was wondering how quickly they'd start whining about the study...

n/t

[RedEarth]

2. LOL...that's priceless

[mtnsnake]

3. If ANYONE grows up to be a conservative in Berkeley, thats sayin somethin!

Must be that someone's kid actually turned into a conservative, so the parents late in their lives did all kinds of surveys to find out what the heck led to such a disaster of a brat and discoverd the "whiner" factor in the few kids that took the wrong path toward conservatism.

Good stuff!

[Neil Lisst]

4. it's a sound observation

Show me a finicky kid with a bad attitude, and I'll show you the Republican Precinct Election worker in 20 years.

[AtomicKitten]

6. I'll bet also the bully and teacher's brown-nosing pet are GOP material.

[Rocknrule]

7. Like I said in an earlier post today

Politics' influence on children can be seen in South Park. Kyle is the quintissential liberal, while Cartman is the quintissential conservative. And as for Stan, he's probably the typical moderate who doesn't want to be involved in politics.

[Vadem]

8. Well, Thank God, my granddaughter is the sunniest person I...

know! Aside from the fact, that I keep telling her that when she grows up, of course, she will vote Democratic! She always says, of course, Nana, if that is what you also do! I love her!
She is only five years old and already reads and writes!