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Conservatives and Liberals

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Overview of the theory of conservatives and liberals


Conservatism and Liberalism is a wide phenomena which presnt itslef in very divers areas of social life. It is well knowen that there are some who behave in a conservative way, and some in liberal way. Although it is well knowen phenomena, it was hard to charctrized precisly the properties of liberals and conservatives, and it is stil not very well established, what are the causes of liberalism and conservatism.

In this papae I will make an effort to give a coherent view of the cartrization of the lib-con phenomena, and will try to give also a coherent mechnism for the causes of lib-con, based on recent years research in psychology and neurocognitive.

Letriture review

Charectristics of Lib-Con

Liberalism and conservatism (LibCon) is a phrsae taken form the political scene, but it may apply to commerce, fashion and other social attitudes. In commerce, liberals, or early adopters, are people who tend to buy the newst products, while conservatives look for well tested products, who are old-fashiond[1]. Although the phenomena is well knowen, It's cahrectarisitc are buffleing. A well knowen attempt to the phenomena was done by Lakoff[2]. Lakoff put liberals on the carring and empathic moral and the conservatives on the strong moral, which divide the world in to good and evil.

The charectaristics of conservatives[3]

Causes of Lib-Con

Conservatives are more fearful, while liberals are more calm[4]. Conservatives percives thetening faces as more threatning[5].

There is a connection between liberalism and intelegence[6].

self motivation for conservatism

conservatism can be caused by:

  • FFFF
  • Important of actions and time presure, which sustaning information can be too costly[7][8][9][10][11][12]
    • Ambiant noise (White noise)[13]
    • Mental fatigue (Ego deplition)[14]
    • alcohol intoxication[15]
  • Low need for cognition
  • Personal need for structure[16])and there is a scale for cognitive closure NFCS[17]
    • Prefernce for order and sturcture.
    • Emotional discomfort associated with amvbigiuty (it can be domain specific and FFFF related. Tal Yaron)).
    • Impetiante and impolsivity with regard to decision making.
    • Desire for security and predictability.
    • Colsed-mindnessnes.

The Theory of RWA (Right-Wing Authoritarian): Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) is a personality and ideological variable studied in political, social, and personality psychology. Right-wing authoritarians are people who have a high degree of willingness to submit to authorities they perceive as established and legitimate, who adhere to societal conventions and norms, and who are hostile and punitive in their attitudes towards people who don't adhere to them. They value uniformity and are in favour of using group authority, including coercion, to achieve it. [18]. In it start the reserchers[19], proposed that harsh parenting styles brought on by economic hardship led entire generations to repress hostility toward authority figures and to replace it with an exaggerated deference and idealization of authority and tendencies to blame societal scapegoats and punish deviants.Altemeyer charcrized RWA as (p.148)[20]:

  • “a high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate”;
  • “a general aggressiveness, directed against various persons, whichis perceived to be sanctioned by established authorities”; and
  • “a high degree of adherence to the social conventions which are perceived to be endorsed by society” .


Need for closure comply to regin idealogy[21][22]. But also when a need for closure is felt, also left-wing ideologies will become regid[23]. All in all, people with high need for closure will prefer rigid, construct and well defined theories[24].

Regulatory Focus Theory"(High demends, critisicem): When one has aspirations (ideals) and on the other hand responsibilites (oughts), and his parenting role models asked him to acomplish high goals, but was focused on saftey, avoding of negative outcomes combined with punishment, the child will grow up to be with strong need for closure, while holding, high ideas. This will be the base for some of the left-wing illiblerals ideologies[25][26].

Terror Management Theory[27]: fear of death may be a cause for political conservatism[28], and may motivate conservatism[29][30][31].Greenberg at al, suggested that TMT will no lead to conservatism, but just to strengthening of basic values[32].

Group motivation for conservatism

Social Dominance Theory (SDO): According to social dominance theory, human societies strive to minimize group conflict by developing ideological belief systems that justify the hegemony of some groups over others[33][34][35][36][37]. They achive it by legitmizing myths like (a) parental myth, in which the dominent group is the only one capable of mangment of the large group. (b)"reciprocal myth", in which every group should take it's place, and the dominante group shoul lead. (c) Sacred myth, which give dominence to one group over others by the authourity of God[38].

SDO and RWA compose of 50% of the statisitcal varience of prejudice and athnocentrism, which is large part of the affectors (Altemeyer 1998 p. 47). SDO is more dominante and RWA is more submissive[39]. as Jost et al put it "One can therefore infer that the most inexorable right-wingers are those who are motivated simultaneously by fear and aggression"[40].

Further readings

References

  1. ↑ Rogers Everett M., 1962,Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press of Glencoe, Macmillan Company
  2. ↑ Metaphor, Morality, and Politics, Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals In the Dust ,George Lakoff, 1995
  3. ↑ Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, Jost et al. Psychological Bulletin, 2003, Vol. 129, No. 3, 339–375
  4. ↑ Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits, 2008, Hibbing et al. Science (Hebrew summery)
  5. ↑ JM. Vigil (2008) Facial Expression Processing Varies with Political Affiliation, Nature
  6. ↑ The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind Dana R. Carney, John T. Jost, Samuel D. Gosling3, Jeff Potter4, Political Psychology, Volume 29, Issue 6, pages 807–840, December 2008
  7. ↑ A Dynamic and Stochastic Theory of Choice, Response Time, and Confidence (review in Hebrew)
  8. ↑ A paper about time and change of attitude for learning
  9. ↑ Author, 1990 , Time Pressure and Stress in Human Judgment and Decision Making
  10. ↑ *Jost, J. T., Kruglanski, A. W., & Simon, L. (1999). Effects of epistemic motivation on conservatism, intolerance, and other system justifying attitudes. In L. Thompson, D. M. Messick, & J. M. Levine (Eds.), Shared cognition in organizations: The management of knowledge (pp.91–116). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  11. ↑ Kruglanski, A. W., & Freund, T. (1983). The freezing and unfreezing of lay inferences: Effects of impressional primacy, ethnic stereotyping, and numerical anchoring. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19,448–468.
  12. ↑ Shah, J. Y., Kruglanski, A. W., & Thompson, E. P. (1998). Membership has its (epistemic) rewards: Need for closure effects on in-group bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 383–393.
  13. ↑ Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. (1996). Motivated closing of the mind: “Seizing” and “freezing.” Psychological Review, 103, 263–283.
  14. ↑ Webster, D. M., Richter, L., & Kruglanski, A. W. (1996). On leaping to conclusions when feeling tired: Mental fatigue effects on impressional primacy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 181–195.
  15. ↑ Webster, D. M. (1994). Groups under the influence: Need for closure effects on the use of shared and unique information. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland at College Park.
  16. ↑ Schaller, M., Boyd, C., Yohannes, J., & O’Brien, N. (1995). The prejudiced personality revisited: Personal need for structure and formation of erroneous group stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 544–555.
  17. ↑ Webster, D. M., & Kruglanski, A. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1049–1062.
  18. ↑ Stenner, Karen (2009). "Three Kinds of “Conservatism". Psychological Inquiry: 142-159
  19. ↑ Adomo, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswilc, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.
  20. ↑ Altemeyer, R. A. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: University ofManitoba Press.
  21. ↑ Jost, J. T., Kruglanski, A. W., & Simon, L. (1999). Effects of epistemic motivation on conservatism, intolerance, and other system justifying attitudes. In L. Thompson, D. M. Messick, & J. M. Levine (Eds.),Shared cognition in organizations: The management of knowledge (pp. 91–116). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  22. ↑ Golec, A. (2001, July). Need for cognitive closure and political conservatism: Studies on the nature of the relationship. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
  23. ↑ *Rokeach, M. (1960). The open and closed mind. New York: Basic Books. Rorty, R. (1989). Contingency, irony, and solidarity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  24. ↑ Kruglanski, A. W. (1989). Lay epistemics and human knowledge: Cognitive and motivational basis. New York: Plenum.
  25. ↑ Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280–1300.
  26. ↑ Higgins, E. T. (1998). Promotion and prevention: Regulatory focus as amotivational principle. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 1–45.
  27. ↑ Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: Free Press
  28. ↑ Wilson, 0. D. (l973). The temperamental basis of attitudes. In 0. D. Wilson (Ed.), The psychology of conservatism (pp. 187—196). London: Academic Press
  29. ↑ Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, 5. (1986). The causes and consequences of the need for self-esteem: A terror management theory.In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189—207). New York: Springer-Verlag.
  30. ↑ Greenberg, 3., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S., & Lyon, D. (1990). Evidence for terror management theory: II. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 308—318.
  31. ↑ Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Lyon,D.(1989). Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 68 1—690.
  32. ↑ Greenberg, 3., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Chatel, D. (1992). Terror management and tolerance: Does mortality salience always intensify negative reactions to others who threaten one’s worldview? Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 63, 212—220.
  33. ↑ Pratto, F. (1999). The puzzle of continuing group inequality: Piecing together psychological, social, and cultural forces in social dominance theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 191—263.
  34. ↑ Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741-763.
  35. ↑ Sidanius, J. (1993). The psychology of group conflict and the dynamics of oppression: A social dominance perspective. In S. Iyengar & W. J.McGuire (lids.), Explorations in political psychology (pp. 183—219). Durham, NC: Duke University Press
  36. ↑ Sidanius, J., & Pratto, F. (1999). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression. New York: Cambridge University Press
  37. ↑ Sidanius, J., Prattu, F., & Bobo, L. (1996). Racism, conservatism, affirmative action, and intellectual sophistication: A matter of principled conservatism or group dominance? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 476—490.
  38. ↑ Sidanius, J. (1993). The psychology of group conflict and the dynamics of oppression: A social dominance perspective. In S. Iyengar & W. J.McGuire (lids.), Explorations in political psychology (pp. 183—219)(look at pp. 207-209).Durham, NC: Duke University Press
  39. ↑ “Altemeyer, R. A. (1998). The other “authoritarian personality.” In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 30, pp. 47—91). New York: Academic Press. in p.75
  40. ↑ John T. Jost, Arie W. Kruglanski, Jack Glaser and Frank J. Sulloway, Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, Psychological Bulletin 2003, Vol. 129, No. 3, 339—375 (p. 350. left col buttom)
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