“John Stuart Mill called it ‘commonplace’ for political systems to have ‘a party or order or stability and a party of progress or reform.’” So begins a recent paper in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences. But is this “commonplace” observation rooted in our brains? Is it even true? The paper, “Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology,” by lead author John R. Hibbing of the University of Nebraska, answers yes to both questions. It advances three successive waves of evidence, which combine to show that conservatives differ from liberals by having stronger, more intense reactions to negative aspects of the environment — such as physical threats, or potential sources of disease — which are ultimately physiological. At the same time, with multiple forms of mass hysteria going on at once, American conservatives seem dead set on proving the scientists right, and underscoring the importance of the work they’re doing. But here’s the twist: The scientists themselves insist that “citing differences in the psychological and physiological traits of liberals and conservatives is not equivalent to declaring one ideology superior to the other.” While this may be true in an abstract sense, and a mix of psychological tendencies makes a society more robust in the long run — balancing needs for caution and self-preservation with needs for exploration, innovation and renewal — in 21st century America, things look strikingly different. Conservative fears of nonexistent or overblown boogeymen — Saddam’s WMD, Shariah law, voter fraud, Obama’s radical anti-colonial mind-set, Benghazi, etc. — make it hard not to see conservatism’s prudent risk avoidance as having morphed into a state of near permanent paranoia, especially fueled by recurrent “moral panics,” a sociological phenomenon in which a group of “social entrepreneurs” whips up hysterical fears over a group of relatively powerless “folk devils” who are supposedly threatening the whole social order. Given that conservatism seems to be part of human nature — just as liberalism is — we’re going to need all the help we can get in figuring out how to live with it, without being dominated, controlled and crippled by it. more . . .
Dude, riddle me this. The definition of conservative and liberal has flipped 100 times over the years. These studies are trying to hit a moving target. In other words, non sequitur.
It's funny how liberals are against profiling, prejudice, grouping people, etc yet they sure do enjoy doing it. LOL.
Against Profiling?!?! Hell the liberals were the ones who invented it. The only thing that has changed from their days running the kkk is that they now have a different boogeyman. Liberals have always been about segmenting society........ Take their old kkk Mantra "Those guys have a war on working class whites," And the only thing that has changed is who the "War" is on, now its a war on women, a war on blacks, a war on hispanics, etc....... Creating divisions amongst people has always been their thing, because communism is deeply unpopular, and no one wants to cede their liberty to someone else, they need to convince people that they never even had their liberty to begin with, in order to convince them that it is better if they control it. Its a page right out of the Alinsky playbook.
In summary... Russell brand and leftists think the world is so broken Robin Williams killed himself. Conservatives are pissed the left broke it and the establishment republicans and the left prefer to screw it up more rather than fix it. We can fix it... if you let us. just a month or 2 ago... every democrat, and half the republicans were telling us the american people want amnesty. they fixed the sequester. they didn't defund obamacare they borrowed more to fix a spending problem. they have created 700% percent inflation or more the last 50 years, raised taxes. lowered savings rates and shipped jobs overseas.
Imagine if a right wing journalist wrote a piece on the "behavior and brain sciences" of black people. LOL. Whoa Nelly, katy bar the door!
So conservatives are cautious, prudent and alert to threats. Liberals are idealistic, emotional and overly trusting. Which would you prefer run your investments, your business or your government?