How to spot a baby conservative

THE STAR ^ | 03/22/06 | KURT KLEINER

[sandbar]

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial.

In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it's a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.

Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into the psychology of conservatism, and concluded that people who are dogmatic, fearful, intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty, and who crave order and structure are more likely to gravitate to conservatism. Critics branded it the "conservatives are crazy" study and accused the authors of a political bias.

Jost welcomed the new study, saying it lends support to his conclusions. But Jeff Greenberg, a social psychologist at the University of Arizona who was critical of Jost's study, was less impressed.

[pabianice]

psychosis [sy.KO.sis] (n).

“The inability to distinguish between what is real and what is imaginary. Psychosis is a term used to describe a severe mental illness. Psychotics are characterized by a variety of symptoms that most people consider abnormal. These include experiencing delusions, such as the notion that one is being persecuted or conspired against. Psychotics may see things which don't actually exist and hear Voices (i.e. God) when no one is around. They often exhibit compulsive, irrational, ritualized behavior, esp. when such behavior serves no purpose or is even harmful or disruptive to those around them. They show no concern for others but may exhibit total self-centered behavior. Includes sociopathy, schizophrenia.”

DSM-IV

“22,310 gun laws is not enough! We won’t stop this senseless violence until we have 22, 311 gun laws! And a GPS installed in every gun! And we hang everyone who buys more than one gun a year! And we let convicted child molesters vote! I am the Walrus, Ko Ko Katchoo!”

[softwarecreator]

How to spot a Conservative Babe

See, now there's a worthwhile study!

[RegulatorCountry]

So, whiney, insecure adults, who run to government authority figures to solve every little quibble, were confident and secure as children? You've got to be kidding me.

[Vaquero]

BWWWWaaaaaaaahhaaaahhaaahaaaaa.

Wow. aint nobody any more insecure than a whiney, victimized, liberal *sshole.

[dubie]

[D.P.Roberts]

Ahh! The Big Lie- A favorite of that other socialist, you know, the National one.

[subterfuge]

Here is a little experiment for Professor SH*t-for-Brains:

Go to the jails, the porn filming set, the rehab centers, the NAMBLA website, any communist or socialist website and count up the liberals vs. conservatives. I dare you.

[The Electrician]

The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests.

That must explain all of the non-conforming liberals who challenge liberal orthodoxy. Oh, wait a minute, there aren't (m)any liberals who challenge liberal orthodoxy. Rather, the typical liberal is as intolerant as the typical Muslim cleric when confronted with anything that remotely challenges their cherished preconceptions. Both of them will go to extreme lengths to violently shout down the merest hint of heresy.

The authors look at liberals, a group of people who cling desperately to a single, narrowly-tailored ideology and will stifle any dissent from the true path, and somehow they manage to see those constipated souls as "non-conforming adults". No bias there, huh? This study is garbage.

[F.J. Mitchell]

The study is probably correct. All a helpless little conservative baby surrounded by the insane liberal babble of his/her lame brained nannies in day care and preschool can do about the situation, is whine to express his/her opinion and their feelings of insecurity and alienation.

Later on, upon reaching maturity and discovering there are adults rational enough to hold similar views and moral values as themselves, they become Conservative Republicans and leave the whining and insecurity to the eternally immature liberal democrats.

[SlowBoat407]

I got beat up a lot in school. I became a conservative when I started fighting back.

[planetpatrol]

I'm more interested in why certain people become involved in politics and others do not. Why are some people, liberal or conservative leaning, so passionately drawn to politics while I'd say 40% of the population couldn't care less? I can relate to people on either side of the spectrum because in terms of personality all politically active people have common traits. They care about things larger than their everyday concerns, they care what other people think and they feed off the competition of ideas. Personally I'm delighted to meet a person of any political stripe just so long as they're up for talking about current issues.

For the life of me I don't get politically apathetic people. I mean yeah I get people who made an effort to care at one point and then became disgusted but that's not most of em. Most of em just couldn't care and never did, more often they're women but not always. I'd like to see somebody study that, maybe figure out why half the country doesn't vote.

[AnAmericanMother]

Block admits in his paper that liberal raving moonbat Berkeley is not representative of the whole country.

There. Fixed it.

[E=MC²]

This whole thing is a total lie based on a fase premise that liberals grow up.

[Pessimist]

If I were a conservative in Berkely, I'd feel like everyone was out to get me too.

[ExSoldier]

little kids who picked their noses and ate the boogers all grew up liberal

FOXNEWS ran a story about a recent study that said little kids who picked their noses and ate it grew up to be more resistant to diseases and were overall healthier. GROSS!

[6SJ7]

This article, is about 2 degrees of separation from declaring conservatism a mental disorder. Soon, 'treatment' will be ordered for the 'disease'; something along the lines of what communists practice with their re-education' camps.

[lastchance]

UC Berkeley professor.
Well yes that is certainly a credible disinterested source. That's like asking Jack Chick about the Catholic Church or Osama Bin Laden about the war in Iraq.

I would rely on his stats as much as I would rely on
" The Check Is In The Mail". If whiny kids grow up to be conservatives why don't conservatives continue the victim mentality through out life. Instead they are self reliant informed citizens who are beholden to no one for their life's successes. They also do not blame others for their life's failures. In short they GROW UP. Liberals never grow up but are always looking for a tit to suck ( pardon the expression but you know what I mean).

[mystery-ak]

They really have this study backwards...

[Pessimist]

"The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests."

What spin!

Let's translate:

"The confident (cocky) kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose (doing nothing) , turning into bright (smart @ssed), non-conforming (has an arrest record)adults with wide interests (still aimless)."