Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
OK, I know this is kind of a mouthful and I can't exactly fit it all into the title so I'm going to be up front in the opening post about it all (i.e. don't ding me a rep).
A study came out and showed that....
[In a rapid response test—you press a button if you're given one signal, but not if you're given a different signal—the authors found that conservatives were "more likely to make errors of commission," whereas "stronger liberalism was correlated with greater accuracy." They concluded that "a more conservative orientation is related to greater persistence in a habitual response pattern, despite signals that this response pattern should change."]
To me that means that conservatives tend to get locked into one way of thinking, and even when the facts change, they have a hard time changing their mental outlook (Iraq war is against the terrorists behind 9/11, Saddam has WMD, Republicans are more "fiscally restrained, etc anyone?).
Here is the study:
Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism - Nature Neuroscience (broken link)
And lest anyone think I am trying to say righties are dumb, here is a page from the liberal Slate.com that is attacking the contention that this means liberals are smarter (more adaptive to new info yes... the "smarter" thing is inconclusive from this study).
Anyone who substitutes "stay" for "say" is probably a liberal, since adhering to established semantic patterns is, to her mind, stodgy and conservative.
To me that means that conservatives tend to get locked into one way of thinking, and even when the facts change, they have a hard time changing their mental outlook (Iraq war is against the terrorists behind 9/11, Saddam has WMD, Republicans are more "fiscally restrained, etc anyone?).
I'd say that being a conservative and getting poor marks on this test are both on the right-hand side of the arrow. That is, each is caused by another thing, rather than one being caused by the other. But that other thing in each case may indeed be an inability to react and revise based on newly arriving data.
I don't think everyone that is conservative fits into those molds though.. nor does anyone liberal... I think there's too much bandwagoning going on in both ideologies...
I think that christian conservatives are the main reason why this study proves true.. because they are indoctrinated.. to believe things from an emotional stand point.. and emotions are a powerful thing... so when the republican conservative machine preys on that... people not only have to be able to think logically.. but they have to be able to cut down those emotional attachments as well.. and that is a hard thing to do..
like I've said in another post... its like the beaten abused housewife... that sticks up and protects her husband.. even when she gets the crap kicked out of her... its an emotional switch in their mind that has to switch off before logic can even enter... and even then.. if they see the logic.. it is easy to downplay or rule it out when emotion is driving your decisions...
There are plenty of conservatives that actually weigh the facts and believe what they believe because it is logical to them.. so.. I dunno how to read into this study.. but thats my two cents atleast as to why it seems to be more harsh on conservatives...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
