The ascendence of conservative ideology has energized both right-wing and left-wing politics in the United States. With all three branches of government locked up in Republicans hands, conservatives are in a historically rare position to affect the future of this country. It is useful to take a step back from the day-to-day news and take a good look at the driving points behind this state of affairs, especially when considered relative to September 11. What exactly is conservative ideology? And more specifically, what is the psychology of conservatism? These are very general questions; I was surprised to find that some researchers have just released an article that tackles them head on. "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition" was published in Psychological Bulletin, and it purports to answer these questions. UC Berkeley has an overview of it online.
The review highlights certainly seem to point out the obvious at times; still it is useful to find one's intuition can be backed by academic research. Quoting from the review, "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:
While trying to keep a non-partisan perspective, the authors mention several different appealing aspects of the conservative viewpoint and explain why it might be so resonant today. For me, the piece begins to clarify why only 22% of white American men describe themselves as Democrats.
"In many cases, including mass politics, 'liberal' traits may be liabilities, and being intolerant of ambiguity, high on the need for closure, or low in cognitive complexity might be associated with such generally valued characteristics as personal commitment and unwavering loyalty," the researchers wrote.
"For a variety of psychological reasons, then, right-wing populism may have more consistent appeal than left-wing populism, especially in times of potential crisis and instability," he said.
Conservatives don't feel the need to jump through complex, intellectual hoops in order to understand or justify some of their positions, he said. "They are more comfortable seeing and stating things in black and white in ways that would make liberals squirm," Glaser said.
That last idea is nicely reflected in a Doonesbury comic from a few weeks back.
On the flipside, while conservatives are busily attempting to rebuild this country in their own image, the liberals have found this to be an effective cry to rally the faithful to their cause. At the same time Howard Dean's candidacy is being mocked as"McGovern Extra Strength", it is also proving to be a consistent crowd pleaser for the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party." In fact, Democrats of all shades are trying to come up with a winning strategy. Those who take matters seriously - such as Clintonians from the Democratic Leadership Council and others from groups like The Emerging Democratic Majority and Democrats for National Security - are finally starting making some the requisite arguments. And as would be expected from the left, there is also a less-than-serious side, which is nicely summed up by a a fantastic post on how to "Defeat the right in three minutes". Alas, "Cheap-Labor Conservative" will not join "Cheese eating surrender monkeys" in the lexicon as it does not quite have the same ring to it.
Posted by payam at August 3, 2003 01:02 PM
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