Science proves it: You can be proud to be a liberal!

[politmuse1]

From the Washington Post:

What's the difference between liberals and conservatives? Jay Dixit pored through the voluminous academic studies on the subject, and he reports what he learned in "The Ideological Animal," in the January/February issue of Psychology Today. " .... Liberals have more books and their books cover a greater variety of topics. . . . Multiple studies find that liberals are more optimistic. Conservatives are more likely to be religious. . . . Liberal men like romantic comedies more than conservative men. Liberal women are more likely than conservative women to enjoy books, poetry, writing in a diary, acting and playing musical instruments."

In 1969, two Berkeley professors studied the personalities of nursery school children.

Twenty years later, Dixit reports, the profs found the kids, who were 23 years old, and asked them whether they were conservatives or liberals.
The ones who called themselves liberals had been described by their nursery school teachers as "self-reliant, energetic, impulsive and resilient." The 23-year-old conservatives had been described as "easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited and vulnerable at age 3."

[hedda_foil]

1. ink please!

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Why do you want ink?

(I know. I know. I have a congenital weakness for cheap shots.)

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. I'd be willing to be that most if not all of the schoolyard bullies

of my youth ended up conservative (in fact, as blueprints for our great misleader himself!). I like this analysis - it describes my wife and I very well....and also described those quite conservative friends that we've managed to maintain some sort of relationship with (though in almost all cases the relationships have gotten quite strained!).

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. K&R 2nd request for a link (or ink) please!

nt

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Here. Now be quiet.

[Kelvin Mace]

15. I dug it up

since the OP seems to have vanished.

See below.

[unpossibles]

4. not surprising. And I can predict the conservative reaction:

calling us elitists because we tend to like to read and be well-rounded. I guess they only care about self-reliance and merit when it makes someone wealthy....

[jilln]

6. and we're "godless"

though i find it a little disturbing to be categorizing 3-year-olds in those terms

[intaglio]

8. Hey! You sound just like one of them Libruls

;)

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Here's a link I found

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20061222-000001.xml

[PA Democrat]

7. Fascinating article.

Thanks for the link.

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. Thanks - what an interesting read that is!

[unpossibles]

16. thanks! great article.

but what about the Fiscal Conservative? I guess it still applies - if they see the world as dangerous, then they probably think everyone is out to steal what's "theirs," from taxes to minorities stealing their jobs or whatever.

I also think we should not discount the effect that marketing has: Look at someone like Frank Luntz - a marketing guru who we can thank for confusing issues with clever sound bites. I think it really says a lot that they are able to sell their platform so well, even though they have yet to be able to show they can actually do the things they say they can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Luntz

[joeprogressive]

9. Doesn't surprise me at all.

It makes you wonder though. Do the kids that surround themselves with more books become Liberal or the kids that have genetic Liberal tendencies tend to read more books? My guess it is a combination but that intelligent kids will read more books, thus making them more likely to become Liberals.

In my last several jobs, the smartest people were always the most liberal and most well rounded academically. The conservatives were smart on occasion but tended to only be able to converse about a narrow spectrum of topics.

Thomas Symington did some interesting work that showed that conservatives were more religious and the more religious were less intelligent. I believe Liberals, while less religious, are much more spiritual than conservaties.

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. Generalizations can be tough...I also wonder how the influence of

surroundings (peers, communities, parents, etc) has impacts (this may be in the article - haven't read the link yet). All I know is that my parents were liberal, my wife and I are, and my 2 daughters are - though it may all be purely coincidental!

[Kelvin Mace]

14. The article is VERY interesting

and I must say, supports my own thoughts on the matter.

The Bene Gesserit sisterhood had the right take: It is all about fear. Perhaps we should teach the litany against fear:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."

Fear is the main neocon product.

I would advise that people watch this BBC documentary, The Power of Nightmares.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/3755686.stm

[unpossibles]

17. nice. Dune is such an inspirational book on so many levels

I will not fear, indeed.

Fear also works to explain why they are so impotently militant - like the school yard bully that really can't fight.

[Sapere aude]

18. I really enjoyed the entire article but I put it in the DUH! column.

We all know that the right uses fear to stay in power. All the right wing talk shows have one thing after another that we should be afraid of. Fear of liberals, illegal immigrants, Islamo-fascist and on and on.

I never saw 9/11 as the significant event that most people saw it as. I was never fearful of terrorists and probably never will be. I am more afraid of losing my life style and freedoms to conservatives than I am of terrorists.

[NRaleighLiberal]

20. Indeed - what is really odd is that I wonder why people of such

faith (at least as they claim) can be so afraid? shouldn't it be the other way around? This tells me that most of them are shams. Also, you are also obviously a fellow member of the 10% club (those who thought * was a dangerous fool and idiot even right after 911).

[kestrel91316]

19. Comes as no big surprise to me, lol. I have been self-reliant

to a fault since I was a toddler. And completely addicted to books and reading since I cut my teeth on National Geographics at age 4.

OTOH, the ex-DBF, famously conservative, only watched TV and surfed the internet. I never saw him pick up a book in 5 1/2 years. I think the only thing he read was postings on FR..............which is why it ultimately didn't work, I suspect.

[Ian_rd]

21. This is totally unfair generalization

And so is this:

"The 23-year-old conservatives had been described as "easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited and vulnerable at age 3."

Easily victimized: Homosexuals are destroying my marriage and brown people are stealing my job!

Easily offended: Why don't you have a Nativity scene with an American flag on your lawn?!?! You hate christians and America!

Indecisive: Hmmm. I don't know what to think about the day's news until Rush tells how to think about it.

Fearful: Take away my rights! I don't care! Just promise me that I'll be safer!

Rigid: I don't care what your science says. I know the earth is fine and prefer not to think about it anymore, thank you very much!

Inhibited: I'm not gay. I'm not gay, Oh God, please, I'm not gay. I'm not gay.

Vulnerable: Waaaaaaaaaaaa.

[ellisonz]

22. I knew it.

Yay for social sciences.

:headbang: