Social psychologists have occasionally published studies purporting to show that those favouring conservative political views are cold-hearted egoists with authoritarian and reactionary tendencies and irrational fears of anarchy, sexual promiscuity, and happiness.  (OK, I made up that last one.)

Now comes a study claiming to show that liberals are also driven by fear.  A psychology professor at Northwestern University contends that liberals fear a world bereft of intense experiences.  Hmmmm.  Doesn’t sound like a valid basis for a political philosophy to me.

“Social scientists long have assumed that liberals are more rational and less fearful than conservatives, but we find that both groups view the world as a dangerous place,” says Dan McAdams, study co-author and professor of human development and psychology at Northwestern University. “It’s just that their fears emerge differently.”
. . .
“Political conservatives envision a world without God in which baser human impulses go unchecked, social institutions (marriage, government, family) fall apart and chaos ensues,” says McAdams. Liberals, on the other hand, envision a world without God as barren, lifeless, devoid of color and reasons to live.

“Liberals see their faith as something that fills them up and, without it, they conjure up metaphors of emptiness, depletion and scarcity,” McAdams said. “While conservatives worry about societal collapse, liberals worry about a world without deep feelings and intense experiences.”

For the record, I take this type of psychological analysis with a large grain of salt.  The issues dividing liberals and conservatives (and libertarians and socialists) are concrete and generally empirical in nature.  Every sane person wants a society with more harmony and happiness and less crime and poverty.  The question is: What policies are more conducive to those ends?

Compared to such basic questions, studies of alleged psychological influences are, in my view, unimportant and unhelpful.

Possibly related posts

• 13 April 2009 -- People marrying inanimate objects
• 20 February 2009 -- Support for suicide bombing linked to mosque attendance
• 17 October 2008 -- Political prejudice masquerading as social psychology
• 10 October 2008 -- Narcissists most likely to become leaders

Tags: Social psychology
Filed under: Social sciences
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