Psychology Study: Fear Leads to Conservatism

Jeez, peeps. They let the participants self-define, lol.

They label themselves.

The scale used in these studies is just a simple Conservative to Liberal 7 point dimension. If people didn't want to define as either they can take the mid-point.

These scales have strong predictive validity (r = .9 for voting behaviour). Of course, works well in the US with the two-party system.

The biggest issue is accounting for libertarians. But this is well-known. Again, if they have issues labelling at either pole, they can take the mid-point.

[edit on 20-7-2010 by melatonin]

reply to post by astrogolf

What do conservatives fear?

Obama, Pelosi, Reid, socialism, Marxism, Hitler, communism, Stalinism, terrorist, Muslims, deficits, big government, gays, democrats winning elections, progress, but mainly they fear change.

Conservatives love freedom

And liberals hate freedom? Conservatives love freedom for themselves, until it becomes freedom to say something you don't agree with, marry someone you don't agree with, or elect someone you don't agree with. Conservatives absolutely despise freedom when it comes to immigrants, or women to make their own decisions about abortions, or when to end your own life.

Take a look at liberals. Who are they? They're the uneducated and the overeducated, most prisoners are liberal as are most illegal aliens.

And most conservatives are booger eaters, wife beaters, and rapist of animals. Whatever!

Who are the conservatives? The business owners and the family men. Life's achievers.

This is starting to sound like that What are boys vs girls nursery rhyme. Snakes and snails, and puppy dog tails.

Warning: Incoming string of contradictions!

Who are the conservatives?

Those who only want to choose their own path
Unlike the gay community
we don't really care what anyone else thinks

stay out of our checking accounts
Carry your own weight.

So when you make a post like this, we realize it's coming from a scared and uncapable mindset that needs to use some type of psychological propaganda to level the playing field.

That is hilarious. Liberals have nothing to fear from the likes of conservatives. We don't need psychological propaganda, or to level any field. I would like to point out that the first step to overcoming a psychological defect, is to admit you have one, which is the point of me posting this for you.

Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux
reply to post by CREAM

 

There are many generalizations listed in that study. The generalization that "liberals are messier than conservatives" does not hold true in my own personal experience of it, as I am very conservative politically speaking and far messier than any liberal friends I have.

It seems that many people, even a psychology student a few posts back, are having a hard time understanding what generalizations and trends are. They are not absolutes and are never meant to apply 100%. A generalization is just that! Just because you do not fit does not make a generalization invalid.

Just noticing that so far many people seem to be trying to point out how flawed the studies are due to their own personal account of not fitting into a general trend. All this does is show why you do not understand what a general trend is.

Originally posted by astrogolf
Who are they? They're the uneducated and the overeducated,

You mean "over educated?" So does someone say something like that with a straight face? They are overly tall and very short. They are all invisibly opaque. This porridge is juuuuuuuuuuuuust right.

So to become a conservative, you must be educated but you must STOP learning at some point so as to not become over educated? That makes sense.

most prisoners are liberal as are most illegal aliens.

Most prisoners are Christians.

[edit on 7/20/10 by evil incarnate]

Originally posted by 12GaugePermissionSlip
The implication is clear: For liberals, conservatives, and independents alike, thinking about death actually makes people more conservative—at least temporarily.

reply to post by 12GaugePermissionSlip


First of all, where in the world are you getting this executive order nonsense that he issued that there wont be any federally funded abortions? There were 3 states ATLEAST so far that have reported on this that they indeed WILL GET FUNDING FOR IT! Even the NEW YORK TIMES reported on this!

and the case against the black panthers? LoL NO ONE came forward on this?
first of all , the only charges they DROPPED was against the man who WASNT carrying the club, they PROCEEDED with the gentleman that was carrying the club......GET YOUR FACTS straight

Not ONLY this a DOJ official RESIGNED over this case because of the CORRUPTION of the OBAMA administration in its refusal to prosecute....are you BLIND?

You sound like a mouthpiece for MSNBC or Robert Gibbs.......

It is you, again, who is ignorant of the facts. Perhaps you can read up on the Black Panther case and get back with me. You might find it was Bush's DOJ that downgraded the case from criminal to civil, in a case involving 3 black men at a predominately black polling station, where NO person has come forward an testified they were intimidated.

I see your good at dodging the issue, the facts are that Obamas administration has refused to move forward with prosecution of the LAST Black Panther member , that they DIDNT drop the case on, and in the same breath are suing Arizona for their immigration law? IF you cannot see the hypocrisy in this , then you are letting your party lines rule you, instead of ruling your party lines

Obama: "My fellow Americans, Tonight I come to you from the Oval Office to say........the NAACP needs to quit trippin. I mean, just let those crackers have their rootin' tootin' redneck rallies and stay out of their way. Thank you, and God bless the United States of America."

You need to concentrate on your own role you are playing, and let me worry about mine. Fear MY butt, buddy. Ha HA! I said butt buddy!

You think this is all funny? You think this is a joke? THATS the problem.
It has nothing to do with FEAR and everything with the fact that this man is tearing this country apart at the seams, from its VERY FOUNDATION and people like you dont care.

He has made it where congress is basically USELESS , and hes gunning for the court system NEXT.

Not only that, hes put himself in the position where he can actually SHOOT any American citizen he deems a terrorist threat a CONTINUATION of a BUSH policy, but since its the MESSIAH you guys are ok with it?

Dont pretend to educate me on politics my friend, I know my facts, and THIS MAN is hell bent on the destruction of this country.

EVERYONE knows the only reason hes stirring up all the racism right now is because of the elections in November........and if you dont want racist whitey to be elected , you better get out there n vote!

The man is a joke

And everyone can see that YOU are just doing this as a complex TROLLING operation, yammering off at the mouth and making outrageous claims........

My last post to this thread, im not playing the game here, i find it humorously typical of someone as liberal as you seem to be tho. Distort the facts, sling accusations and attack people instead of the issues....



[edit on 20-7-2010 by ManBehindTheMask]

reply to post by 12GaugePermissionSlip


"That is hilarious. Liberals have nothing to fear from the likes of conservatives. We don't need psychological propaganda, or to level any field. I would like to point out that the first step to overcoming a psychological defect, is to admit you have one, which is the point of me posting this for you. "

That's funny, because if you don't need psychological propaganda, why do you use a psychology study for the substantiation of your theory?
Remember, socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money. Here's a short film that gives a good idea of what the world would be like if liberals continue to reproduce at a rapid rate and maintain control of the government.www.youtube.com...

[edit on 20-7-2010 by astrogolf]

[edit on 20-7-2010 by astrogolf]

[edit on 20-7-2010 by astrogolf]

There's a dark side and a light side to every political ideology, depending on how it is interpreted and used. Liberals and Conservatives waste a lot of energy pointing out each others darkest variants. No offense OP but you guys are part of the problem.

reply to post by evil incarnate

Just noticing that so far many people seem to be trying to point out how flawed the studies are due to their own personal account of not fitting into a general trend. All this does is show why you do not understand what a general trend is.

The general course of prevailing tendencies are useful when tracking voting trends, fashion trends, entertainment viewing trends, or shopping trends. They are useful when tracking the course of economics, but not so useful when attempting to describe psychological behavioral patterns. Further, and again, what a conservative is and what a liberal is, must be clearly defined when conducting such studies, a subtle nuance you clearly don't seem to understand. The irony of your disregard for this subtle nuance lies in a statement made by that study:

The study's authors also concluded that conservatives have less tolerance for ambiguity, a trait they say is exemplified when George Bush says things like, "Look, my job isn't to try to nuance. My job is to tell people what I think," and "I'm the decider." Those who think the world is highly dangerous and those with the greatest fear of death are the most likely to be conservative.

It is just a guess, but my guess is that you do not identify yourself as a conservative, or a George Bush supporter, but you sure don't seem to have much tolerance for ambiguity. Certainly general trends are less concerned with general ambiguity and nuance than they are concerned with obviousness, even bluntness and crudeness.

[edit on 20-7-2010 by Jean Paul Zodeaux]

reply to post by evil incarnate


"You mean "over educated?" So does someone say something like that with a straight face?"

Over educated. The 32-year old who has a couple of post-graduate degrees, but can't seem to get his butt out there and work, because his degrees are in psychology and philosophy, and he therefore has no valid or usefull job skills. He can't make anything, and doesn't really know how to do anything. When his parents finally put their foot down and make him get a job, he'll teach at the university things he knows absolutely nothing about, because he's spent the last 13 years on a college campus and not in the real world. He'll be full of theories, though. You know, like Obama.

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask

First of all, where in the world are you getting this executive order nonsense that he issued that there wont be any federally funded abortions?

Oh, I don't know where I saw that. Probably from some idiotic news source......Oh, wait now I remember, and it was from an idiotic news source:
Obama Signs Executive Order Reaffirming Laws on Federal Funding of Abortion www.foxnews.com...

and the case against the black panthers? LoL NO ONE came forward on this?

No voters have come forward to claim that they were intimidated from voting on account of the New Black Panthers standing outside the polling center in 2008;
mediamatters.org...
Can you name one?

first of all , the only charges they DROPPED was against the man who WASNT carrying the club, they PROCEEDED with the gentleman that was carrying the club......GET YOUR FACTS straight

I never said charges were dropped, so you get your facts straight. Here is what I said,"You might find it was Bush's DOJ that downgraded the case from criminal to civil, in a case involving 3 black men at a predominately black polling station, where NO person has come forward an testified they were intimidated."

Not ONLY this a DOJ official RESIGNED over this case because of the CORRUPTION of the OBAMA administration in its refusal to prosecute....are you BLIND?

When you refuse to get the facts it only makes you look stupid when calling someone blind.
Adams is the DOJ official you speak of, and Adams has admitted that he does not have first-hand knowledge of the events, conversations, and decisions that he is citing to advance his accusations; Adams himself testified that he had no "indication" that the decision involved anyone "higher up" than an acting assistant attorney general.
The Bush administration's Justice Department -- not the Obama administration -- made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for alleged voter intimidation at a polling center in Philadelphia in 2008;
The Obama administration successfully obtained default judgment against Samir Shabazz, a member of the New Black Panther Party carrying a nightstick outside the Philadelphia polling center on Election Day 2008;
The Republican vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is currently investigating the Justice Department's decision, reportedly said that the other conservatives on the Civil Rights Commission were trying to use New Black Panther case "to topple" the Obama administration. Thernston has also called the case "very small potatoes" and criticized the "overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges" surrounding it, and said that rhetoric has not "served the interests of the commission"; she further said that DOJ has given a "plausible argument" for not pursuing additional charges in the case.

Have I school you enough today? No? OK then, let's continue...

You sound like a mouthpiece for MSNBC or Robert Gibbs.......

And you sound like a mouthpiece for FUX upthe NEWS, and O'Really.

the facts are that Obamas administration has refused to move forward with prosecution of the LAST Black Panther member , that they DIDNT drop the case

In his May 14 testimony before the Commission on Civil Rights, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez explained that the Bush administration's Justice Department "determined that the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statutes" but did "file a civil action on January 7th, 2009." From Perez's testimony
May 2009: DOJ obtained default judgment against Shabazz for carrying weapon outside polling station. On May 18, 2009, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered default judgment against Samir Shabazz.

Feels silly to be so blatantly wrong all the time, huh?

The Bush administration DOJ chose not to pursue similar charges against members of the Minutemen, one of whom allegedly carried a weapon while harassing Hispanic voters in Arizona in 2006;

Speaking of Arizona and voter intimadation cases NOT pursued:
The Bush administration DOJ chose not to pursue similar charges against members of the Minutemen, one of whom allegedly carried a weapon while harassing Hispanic voters in Arizona in 2006;

You think this is all funny? You think this is a joke?

I think me exposing your stupidity is funny and you are a joke.

It has nothing to do with FEAR and everything with the fact that this man is tearing this country apart at the seams, from its VERY FOUNDATION and people like you dont care.

You say it has nothing to do with fear, and then you state your fears. I did care when we did have a President "tearing this country apart at the seams", but my fears didn't come to fruition either.

He has made it where congress is basically USELESS , and hes gunning for the court system NEXT.

A conservative fear

Not only that, hes put himself in the position where he can actually SHOOT any American citizen he deems a terrorist threat a CONTINUATION of a BUSH policy, but since its the MESSIAH you guys are ok with it?

Another conservative fear. My Messiah would never do that.

Dont pretend to educate me on politics my friend, I know my facts,

Obviously not. You need some ed jew ma kay shun. I have sat here and systematically dismantled all your perceived "facts". It has been very easy and a lot of fun. I hope you come at me again with your "facts". It will be my pleasure to embarrass you on this board some more. Or help you embarrass yourself.

and THIS MAN is hell bent on the destruction of this country.

Another conservative fantasy they fear. Why doesn't he just nuke us all then?

EVERYONE knows the only reason hes stirring up all the racism right now is because of the elections in November

You meant to say the only reason Fox is "stirring up all the racism right now is because of the elections in November"

And everyone can see that YOU are just doing this as a complex TROLLING operation, yammering off at the mouth and making outrageous claims........

No, you are yammering, I am bringing facts backed up with links, testimony, corroborations, and evidence. Can you do that with your outrageous claims? Please do.

My last post to this thread, im not playing the game here, i find it humorously typical of someone as liberal as you seem to be tho. Distort the facts, sling accusations and attack people instead of the issues....

Ahh, don't give up on me that easily. I swear I'll pretend to listen to your crap. Talk about attacking people instead of issues. Man, everything you have accused me of is what you are doing.

Distort the facts - check (you said "the facts are that Obamas administration has refused to move forward with prosecution of the LAST Black Panther member")

sling accusations - check (you said " fact that this man is tearing this country apart at the seams, from its VERY FOUNDATION" and "THIS MAN is hell bent on the destruction of this country.")

attack people instead of the issues - check (you said "You sound like a mouthpiece for MSNBC or Robert Gibbs")

What a joke.

Hmm...let me see, we got a couple of guys out of berkley - the liberal capital of the solar system and they conduct a study of how people become conservatives.

Yep, a frack'n joke.

reply to post by astrogolf

That's funny, because if you don't need psychological propaganda, why do you use a psychology study for the substantiation of your theory?

What kind of study would I use, one on mating habits of a ladybug? Besides, it's not my theory?

Remember, socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money.

Remember, capitalism is great until only one person ends up with all the money.

Here's a short film that gives a good idea of what the world would be like if liberals continue to reproduce at a rapid rate and maintain control of the government

Would this be a propaganda film that substantiates your theory? No. thanks.

[edit on 20-7-2010 by 12GaugePermissionSlip]

And ignorance leads to liberalism. Better to be informed and understand the reality of the situation than to be ignorant and make rash decisions based on nothing more than feelings.

Originally posted by Phage
Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.
- Winston Churchill


Experience. Some learn by it. Some don't.

[edit on 7/20/2010 by Phage]

This shows that experience trumps studies by biased Liberals who are defending their own Liberal tendencies.

Just using my life experience, other things are true.

People who start their own businesses and succeed at them are more likely to be Conservative.

Older people tend to be more Conservative.

I wonder how they explain me. I was a Liberal in my youth, Vietnam War Protester and all. I later became a Moderate Conservative. As a Liberal I never accomplished anything until I adopted a Conservative point of view. Since changing my stance, I've never had an empty wallet and I've been a steady provider, with a stable marriage.

I'm betting they did not factor in which generation. With people of my age I think their theory would fall apart. Where I grew up and during the time I grew up in, the Conservative point of view equaled success in school and in life, while the Liberals tended to become Government or Large Corporate workers and many stayed as professional students, never leaving academia. Most ended up there as a result of avoiding the Draft. Many would have never even gone to school to be controlled by "The Man" had it not been a way to avoid the Draft. That is how I think we ended up with a Far Left Liberal mindset in our schools today.

My theory is this whole thing flip flops every couple of generations. This one will produce Conservative Children, while my time produced more Liberal Children.

reply to post by Skyfloating

No offense OP but you guys are part of the problem.

I couldn't agree more. I realize I have a part to play in the divisive tactics used by both sides. It pains me on one hand that we can't agree on what we agree on, but I also am here because I can't allow them to regurgitate the lies without fact checking and disputing them. Would you want an ATS that is full of one sided statements of fear based paranoia, without proper debate?

Besides, there is a lot of inflated, unsubstantiated fear in this country, and I like to show there are two sides. Sometimes it seems I am the only one here to challenge these positions. ATS would be boring if everyone made up a bunch of Obama/democrats/liberal conspiracy threads and everyone posted in agreement to them. Wouldn't you agree?

Pretty obvious...

Poor paranoid delusional conservatives... always claiming people are dissing them for their religion when in actuality it's their religion that distances them from the world.

reply to post by 12GaugePermissionSlip




Why can't people admit that both sides are flawed and the sensible people are in the middle ground some where. You go to either extreme it is destructive not constructive.

What we need is a balance between the two and when we have problems, like right now, is when one side gets too much power. No checks and balances.

One side, the Conservative side knows history repeats, always. The other extreme, the Progressives, ignore history thinking that somehow in the past they were stupid. Of course they were not stupid and history does repeat. What we need is a balance between the two. Yin and Yang.

Reply to post by Blaine91555

Balance isn't much better. With balance we get compromise. With compromise we get half-assed government that takes on all the restricting and regulating without following through on any of the promises made.

A nice example of stupid compromise is the Clinton AWB. Crimes committed with handgus was headline news. The people and the politicians wanted to put retractions on them. Other wanted no restrictions. It did t look feasible to pass any handgun related restrictions so they went for an easier target. The evil black rifles. They looked scary so the ignorant were all for the restrictions. They were used very much for hunting so quite a few of the rurals were willing to tolerate the restrictions. After all we were all promised massive drops in crime and safe streets. Even though the FBI stats showed these rifles were rarely ever used in a crime.

So we got an expensive bill restricting cosmetic features of certain rifles that years later was proven to have to affect on crime whatsoever.

Nothing good comes from government. Whether it's extreme to one side or balanced. The best we can ever have is a gridlocked government that can't spend any money or pass any stupid laws. We can consider their salaries to be a sort of daycare fee for authoritarians suffering dementia.


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