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Name:
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copperline
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Subject:
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I wasn't going to bring this up, but....
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Date:
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4/23/2012 8:36:49 AM
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March 29,
2012
is Conservatism Our Default
ideology?
New research provides evidence that, when under time
pressure or otherwise cognitively impaired, people are more likely to express
conservative views.
By Tom Jacobs
According
to a recent Gallup poll, 40
percent of Americans describe themselves as conservative, while only 21 percent
call themselves liberal. (Another 35 percent are self-identified moderates.)
This gap
has long puzzled scholars. if left and right ideologies comprise a mutually
dependent yin-yang system, reflecting different approaches to meeting our most basic needs,
shouldn’t they be held by roughly the same proportion of people?
One
possible explanation is that some “conservatives” wear the label quite loosely. Another points to
the long-established link between right-wing attitudes and a tendency to perceive the world as threatening. in an era
where the latest scare is constantly being hyped on television and the
internet, it stands to reason that conservatism would dominate.
Newly published research
proposes a somewhat different, and quite provocative, answer.
A research
team led by University of Arkansas psychologist Scott
Eidelman argues that conservatism — which the researchers identify
as “an emphasis on personal responsibility, acceptance of hierarchy, and a
preference for the status quo” — may be our default ideology. if we don’t have
the time or energy to give a matter sufficient thought, we tend to accept the
conservative argument.
“When
effortful, deliberate responding is disrupted or disengaged, thought processes
become quick and efficient,” the researchers write in the Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin. “These conditions promote conservative
ideology.”
Eidelman
and his colleagues’ paper will surely outrage many on the left (who will resist
the notion of conservatism as somehow natural) and the right (who will take
offense to the idea that their ideology is linked to low brainpower). The
researchers do their best to preemptively answer such criticism.
“We do not
assert that conservatives fail to engage in effortful, deliberate thought,”
they insist. “We find that when effortful thought is disengaged, the first step
people take tends to be in a conservative direction.”
The
researchers describe four studies that provide evidence backing up their
thesis. in each case, they used a different method to disrupt the process of
deliberation, and found that doing so increased the odds of someone espousing
conservative views.
Their
first method was a time-tested one: inebriation. Researchers stood outside the
exit of a busy New England tavern and offered to measure patrons’ blood alcohol
level if they would fill out a short survey. Eighty-five drinkers agreed,
expressing their opinions of 10 statements such as “production and trade should
be free of government interference.”
“Bar
patrons reported more conservative attitudes as their level of alcohol
intoxication increased,” the researchers report.
A second
experiment featured 38 University of Maine undergraduates who filled out a
similar survey. Half did so while working on “a distraction task” that required
them to listen closely to a tape of tones that varied in pitch.
Those who
had to do two things at once, and were thus under a heavier “cognitive load,”
were more likely than their peers to endorse conservative attitudes, and less
likely to endorse liberal positions.
in a third
experiment, participants under time pressure were more likely to endorse
conservative viewpoints than those who were not. in a fourth experiment, those
asked to “give your first, immediate response” were more likely to express
support for words and phrases linked to conservatism (such as “law and order”
and “authority”) than those who were instructed to “really put forth effort and
consider the issue.”
Eidelman
notes that this dynamic was found with different populations (college students
and bar patrons) and in people from different parts of the country (three of
the experiments were conducted in Maine, a fourth in Arkansas). He adds just
one caveat: “Largely, our sample consisted of political centrists.”
“ideology
is multiply determined, coming from many sources, including values, experience,
history and culture,” the researchers note. it’s unclear whether
this rightward drift would occur in a population of strongly committed but
cognitively overloaded liberals.
Similarly,
it’s not certain whether die-hard right-wingers would express even
more conservative views under these conditions. What does seem clear is
that our first impulse tends to be to stick with the tried and
true, and this attitude aligns better with conservative ideas than liberal
ones.
“The bad
news for liberals is we’re saying that conservatism has a certain psychological
advantage,” Eidelman said. “The bad news for conservatives is that someone who
has a knee-jerk conservative reaction may change their mind about an issue
after giving it more thought.”
Of course,
it’s an open question as to what percentage of the population genuinely ponders
political issues, rather than simply going with their initial instincts. This
suggests liberals face a significant challenge in converting people to their
cause.
As
Eidelman puts it: “it might take a little extra effort to convince yourself (to
support a liberal position), and a little extra work to convince others.”
***
in answer to many questions raised in comments on this story, the authors of
the academic paper report they received no financial support for the research,
authorship, or publication of their paper.
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