We're here! We're liberal! Get use to it! :headbang: :patriot: :hi:
http://www.livescience.com/2360-busting-myth-people-turn-liberal-age.htmlThe stereotype of a cranky old man, set in his ways, getting more conservative by the day, is an enduring one. But new research has debunked the myth that people become more conservative as they age.
By comparing surveys of various age groups taken over a span of more than 30 years, sociologists found that in general, Americans' opinions veer toward the liberal as they grow older.
"All the evidence we have found refutes the idea that as people age their attitudes become more conservative or more rigid," said Nicholas Danigelis, a sociologist at the University of Vermont. "It's just not true. More people are changing in a liberal direction than in a conservative direction."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100224132655.htmData from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) support Kanazawa's hypothesis. Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as "very liberal" have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as "very conservative" have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.
http://www.heri.ucla.edu/pr-display.php?prQry=19College Freshmen More Politically Liberal Than In The Past, UCLA Survey Reveals
The fall 2001 survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies finds that 29.9 percent of students entering four-year colleges and universities characterize their political views as "liberal" or "far left," the highest percentage in two decades, and substantially higher than the 20.7 percent who consider themselves "conservative" or "far right." The overall percentage of today’s "liberal" freshmen increased from 27.7 percent last year and 21.0 percent in 1981, but is still lower than the all-time high of 40.9 percent recorded in 1971. Most students labeled themselves "middle of the road" (49.5 percent, down from 51.9 percent last year).
http://www.heri.ucla.edu/PDFs/press/pr012208-08Freshman.pdf
--Political engagement among college freshmen hits 40-year high--
College freshman are more politically engaged today than at any point during the last 40
years, with 89.5 percent reporting that they frequently or occasionally discussed politics in
the last year, according to UCLA's annual survey of the nation's entering students at four-year
institutions.
An increase was also seen in the proportion of students who characterize themselves as
liberal, which reached its highest level in 35 years in 2008, at 31.0 percent. The percentage of
incoming students who characterize themselves as politically middle-of-the-road, however,
has seen a steady decline and in 2008 reached an all-time low of 43.3 percent, roughly the
same percentage as in 1970. One in five students (20.7 percent) identified themselves as
conservative in 2008, down from 23.1 percent in 2007.
Liberal causes are also gaining more support. In 2008, two-thirds (66.2 percent) of college
freshmen supported the right to legal marriage for same sex couples, and a similar percentage
(60.4 percent) agreed with the statement "The wealthy should pay a larger share of taxes than
they do now." Also noteworthy was the proportion of freshmen who support military
spending, which since hitting a high of 45.0 percent in 2002 following the Sept. 11 attacks,
declined to a low of 28.0 percent in 2008
http://www.truth-out.org/article/liberal-positions-gaining-popularityNationally, 40 percent of Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections called themselves liberal, the highest since the American National Election Studies program started asking in 1972.
At the same time, the number of Democrats who support a government safety net for the poor - such as guaranteeing food and shelter for the needy and spending to help them even if it means more debt - jumped by 14 percentage points from 1994 to 2007, according to the Pew Research Center.