Standing near hand sanitizer makes Americans more conservative. So what will Ebola do?

vox.com ^ | 10/27/14 | Ezra Klein

[cotton1706]

To get a sense of how Ebola might be affecting the national electorate, it's worth considering how a simple bottle of hand sanitizer affected students at Cornell University.

In their 2012 paper "Dirty Liberals! Reminders of Physical Cleanliness Influence Moral and Political Attitudes," Erik Helzer and David Pizarro stopped 52 Cornell students in a campus hallway and asked them to take a short survey. But there was a catch. Half the students were asked "step over to the wall to complete the questionnaire." The other half were asked to "step over to the hand-sanitizer dispenser to complete the questionnaire."

The results were startling: the simple reminder of hand sanitizer —  which is, itself, a reminder that disease is everywhere, and you need to be protecting yourself — changed students' self-reported politics. On average, students in the control group rated themselves a 4.93 on a scale where 1 was extremely conservative and 7 was extremely liberal. But students who were cued to think about the hand sanitizer rated themselves, on average, a 4.30  — and the difference held on fiscal, social, and moral issues.

The mere nearness of some hand sanitizer was able "to shift participants' responses toward the conservative end of the political spectrum," Helzer and Pizarro concluded.

[cotton1706]

It's amazing to see how these people think. And how shocked they are when people react...well...naturally.

An article like this demonstrates how worried they are that the precious, politically-correct bubble they were all taught about in college can be quickly destroyed when confronted by the pinprick of reality!

[Waryone]

Dems to outlaw hand sanitizer from all polling places.

[Zeppo]

The results were startling: the simple reminder of hand sanitizer —  which is, itself, a reminder that disease is everywhere, and you need to be protecting yourself — changed students' self-reported politics.

And credulous 'progressive' fools such as Ezra Klein will believe those ridiculous claims because they're all sciency and stuff.

[Vigilanteman]

Guess who will be taking hand sanitizer to the polls where I’ve signed up to work? I’m going to put an American flag decal on it too.

[cotton1706]

Reading a piece like this reminds me of Orwell’s famous quote: “Only an intellectual could believe that. No ordinary man would be such a fool!”

The “enlightened ones” always seem to be surprised by human nature.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Standing near hand sanitizer makes Americans more conservative. So what will Ebola do?

Dems and libs in general are creepy, gutter slime, so naturally hand sanitizer repels them.

[left that other site]

Cleanliness is next to godliness?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There are several things that make Americans more conservative, and more inclined to vote for Republicans than Democrats.

Number 1, by far, are patriotic feelings. Even seeing a United States flag or hearing patriotic music can influence the average American for as long as two weeks. For this reason alone, every conservative should be displaying the flag well before the election. It might actually mean a few more seats in congress nationally.

[null and void]

Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your......

(hat tip to: fivecatsandadog!)

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Steve_Seattle]

The problem with this survey is that liberals typically claim to be more concerned about cleanliness and purity than conservatives. They always insist that conservatives want to live with dirty air and contaminated water and unsafe food and nuclear waste. You would think that those questioned near the hand sanitizers would respond with more LIBERAL answers.

[Sir Napsalot]

I don’t know if I really buy the psychological study and its conclusion.

At best, it reflects people in those studies only had transient (not deeply held) views, easily influenced by environment, by peers, by any number of factors.

But does this thoughtless pattern hold true when people vote? For some, it may be true, but if these people are so easily influenced on the voting day, how many would actually vote?

[Steve_Seattle]

I don’t know the details of this survey, but 52 students is a VERY small sample. Moreover, I don’t know if they knew whether the surveyed students were liberal or conservative to begin with, and that proximity to the hand sanitizers was associated with a CHANGE of belief. Maybe it just happened that a slightly larger group of students with pre-existing conservative views happened to be questioned near to the hand sanitizers.

[longtermmemmory]

how about EVERYONE hang their American Flag in front of their homes?

More flags meant more conservative votes.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[a fool in paradise]

This Coronavirus “wash your hands” things is all a big Republican plot to win the 2020 election!!!

---

In their 2012 paper “Dirty Liberals! Reminders of Physical Cleanliness Influence Moral and Political Attitudes,” Erik Helzer and David Pizarro stopped 52 Cornell students in a campus hallway and asked them to take a short survey. But there was a catch. Half the students were asked “step over to the wall to complete the questionnaire.” The other half were asked to “step over to the hand-sanitizer dispenser to complete the questionnaire.”

The results were startling: the simple reminder of hand sanitizer — which is, itself, a reminder that disease is everywhere, and you need to be protecting yourself — changed students’ self-reported politics. On average, students in the control group rated themselves a 4.93 on a scale where 1 was extremely conservative and 7 was extremely liberal. But students who were cued to think about the hand sanitizer rated themselves, on average, a 4.30 — and the difference held on fiscal, social, and moral issues.

The mere nearness of some hand sanitizer was able “to shift participants’ responses toward the conservative end of the political spectrum,” Helzer and Pizarro concluded.