If I am correct in what I have observed, it is not only about feeling good about themselves, but it is also about winning the argument, not by logic, but by socially out-grouping you as mean.
In the link on dopamine, they looked at people’s brains as they completed tasks. High dopamine function was task oriented, as in using logic to search for truth. Low dopamine function was active in much different areas, areas associated with perceiving self, and maneuvering socially.
The Liberal portrays you as mean, to make others ally with them, against you. If you actively seek to ally others with you, against them, and they detect this, they back down, rather than get out-grouped.
That would explain why they loved to “gang up” on me at work. It would also explain why they tended to back down if even one person was on my side or even if they merely acknowledged that I had a valid point.
I am reading your r/K link.
This is all very interesting. Conservatives should learn to use this information effectively. Instead, our elected “conservatives” suck up to the perceived in-group and vote with them in order to be seen as “nice.”
Maybe we need to (among other things) hammer on the idea that liberals are being “mean” and “judgmental” when they try to attach those labels to us!
Regarding r/K. It is interesting that typical liberal behavior is to reproduce like rabbits, favoring promiscuity and single parenting and the “rights” of welfare recipients to have as many children as possible, yet they are the ones preaching doom and gloom about the carrying capacity of the earth. On the other hand, liberal “elites” often have few children and behave much more like K-types. And the stereotypical “bitter clinger” has a large family.
I think you can look at “reproduction” in another way, too, not just as physically reproducing. Think about reproduction as “converting” someone to your view, i.e., changing a liberal into a conservative or vice versa. Do we use the careful high investment nurturing method while they are using the scattershot promiscuous method? I think so. They get to use the schools and the media while we carefully raise our children and logically debate points with those we think have a hope of seeing the truth.
... still reading ...