Researchers help define what makes a political conservative

targetpractice

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Tue Jul-22-03 10:40 PM
Original message

Researchers help define what makes a political conservative

Hope this isn't a dupe, but this question is often asked on this board. One of the researchers, Frank Sulloway also wrote an amazing book about his reasearch into birth order and personality called Born to Rebel.

Researchers help define what makes a political conservative

BERKLEY - Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:

- Fear and aggression
- Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Need for cognitive closure
- Terror management

...more very interesting stuff here.

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nadinbrzezinski

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Tue Jul-22-03 10:49 PM
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1. hmm

does explain them, doesn't it

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berry

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Tue Jul-22-03 11:45 PM
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2. Tantalizing article--I want to read more.

Edited on Tue Jul-22-03 11:48 PM by berry

But apparently the full article is in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin, which isn't online except to give tables of contents and abstracts (and the July issue abstracts aren't online yet). Oh well. Guess I'll have to go to a real library.

Thanks for the tip, targetpractice!

Oh, I forgot to say how amusing it is--how many times they take pains to repeat that RW thinking isn't necessarily inferior, eg., sometimes one needs black and white thinking. Uh-huh.

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targetpractice

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Wed Jul-23-03 10:07 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. Good topics die quickly these days...

Edited on Wed Jul-23-03 10:11 PM by targetpractice

You should definitely read Born to Rebel by Frank Sulloway -- one of the researchers in the new study. He analyzed over 4000 historical figures in science and discovered that first-borns are less open to new ideas, defend the status quo, and are more conservative -- whereas the revolutions in science were led by latter-borns, who are (for reasons described in the book) more open to change and radical new ideas.

Born to Rebel at Amazon

On edit: There are exceptions to the birth order rule, which Sulloway explains in depth. I am a perfect example. So, don't flame me you first-born liberals!!

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