Conservative Politics, 'Low-Effort' Thinking Linked In New Study

[admonsta]

I wonder if what the study missed is this: We all have a natural tendency towards good, but our tendency has been tainted by sin. It's still there, though. I think we might call it conscience. It's part of the natural law.

Those people who didn't think too fast probably had consciences less clouded by voices, so their opinions more closely matched their conscience.

That's not to say that we shouldn't think - intelligence is a gift from God. Like all gifts, however, it can be misused. We should be more careful about why we follow certain arguments, and we should think with a well-formed conscience.

[_Abyssinia]

I think it would take some low effort thought to think that this study is representative of reality.

Method for study 1:

to the study. Method Participants and procedure. Eighty-five community members (29% female) who were patrons of a local New England bar participated without remuneration. Mixed-sex groups of 3 to 4 experimenters obtained permission to stand outside the bar’s busiest exit and approach potential participants as they left. Participants were asked to complete a short survey about social attitudes in exchange for learning their BAC. Before collecting data, experimenters verified that each participant was at least 21 years of age and not driving.

Study 2:

Participants and design. Thirty-eight undergraduates from the University of Maine (89% female) enrolled in an introductory psychology course participated in exchange for extra credit. Participants were run in small groups but worked independently. Each session was randomly assigned to one level of a cognitive load manipulation.

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early....full.pdf+html

Survey was done on 85 people in a bar and 35 students doing it for extra credit - that is how it was attained that conservatives are 'low thinking?'

[Digitonomy]

Originally Posted by St Francis

First, we don't know who these people were whom they interviewed, nor do we know what they asked them...So, you have a drunk college student, say, who is asked a gazillion questions by, say, a snooty sort of woman, and he just wants to get rid of her so he gives her answers like....

As I mentioned, it helps to read the paper:

Eighty-five community members
(29% female) who were patrons of a local New England
bar participated without remuneration. Mixed-sex groups of
3 to 4 experimenters obtained permission to stand outside the
bar’s busiest exit and approach potential participants as they
left. Participants were asked to complete a short survey about
social attitudes in exchange for learning their BAC.

The other two studies described in the paper were conducted in more controlled conditions, using as subjects undergraduate psychology students at the University of Maine.

[po18guy]

This study may have inadvertently pinpointed exactly why the intelligentsia hate America: The founding founders failed to nuance the motives of King George III and, in a bout of pure impulse, began pitching tea and pulling triggers.

[Nine_Two]

First off the article is significantly different than the headline or the question at the end.

All the article says is that people tend toward "conservative" opinions when drunk, distracted, etc.

The problem is it doesn't say what "conservative" is.

I would suggest, however, that generally speaking conservatism is anti-interventionist, personal-responsibility based. These positions will undoubtedly be easier to articulate. For example, the question of what to do about Prison Overcrowding:

The conservative answer would likely be something along the line of building more prisons. Simple.
The liberal answer would be something along the lines of programs to keep kids out, programs for prisoners already in so they don't come back, etc. Much more complex.


When you think about it, the article really isn't that surprising.
Given the source, I suppose the headline and the question at the end aren't either. Liberals must have low self-esteem or something. Always putting others down.

[wynnejj]

Originally Posted by Nine_Two

The problem is it doesn't say what "conservative" is.

A conservative says... I'm drunk. I better drive straight home and do my best to keep within the speed limit. A liberal says... I wonder if that bar across town is still open.
(Hey. Conservatives have low esteem too.)

[ringil]

Well Mississippi is both the most Repulican and the least educated state so . . . . .

[MacBP]

Looking at the study, it looks like conservative attitudes were determined through the surveys. This is pretty par for the course in psychological studies, as was the sample size. There didn't seem to be anything inherently wrong with the way they were conducting the experiment.

I do find it interesting that people believe less effortful thinking to be automatically wrong. Over thinking is as much a problem as under thinking.

[CatholicBoy1957]

Originally Posted by ringil

Well Mississippi is both the most Repulican and the least educated state so . . . . .

And Lucifer is the Light Bearer...

[wynnejj]

Originally Posted by irishpatrick

LOL

How do they explain the many thousands, if not millions, who were once on the left (quite strongly so), and then as they matured, they moved to the right (or conservative) side? Did the switch to the conservative side for those people mean that they suddenly had intelligence sucked from their brains?

Years of liberal drinking left them distracted in their old age?

[Dawnia]

...participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts

Wait a minute. Those thinking have conservative attitudes and those not thinking have liberal attitudes. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what they are saying.

[Faith1960]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

I agree. If the HuffPo said the sun would rise in the east tomorrow morning, I would at least be tempted to look for it in the west.

We still have AOL and these stupid articles keep coming up on my screen. I'll read the headlines and then get so curious that I have to read it.

[ringil]

Originally Posted by CatholicBoy1957

And Lucifer is the Light Bearer...

Satan is an over educated elitist- I KNEW IT!!

[Digitonomy]

Originally Posted by Dawnia

Wait a minute. Those thinking have conservative attitudes and those not thinking have liberal attitudes. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what they are saying.

It's more that those distracted and perhaps thinking about other things were more likely to answer the questions conservatively.

It's also worth pointing out that the paper doesn't really set out to study the correlation of liberal attitudes to low-effort thinking.

Liberal political beliefs may be independent of conservative beliefs particularly among nonexperts and those unmotivated to form opinions, and so our hypothesis is largely silent on the relationship between deliberate thought and liberalism. We made no firm predictions about the effect of load on liberalism other than to expect a pattern distinct from the effects of load on conservatism, which would indicate that load’s effect is not due to acquiescence or other nuisance processes.

Nonetheless, in the second study, which is the one you asked about and from which the above quote comes, they did compare endorsement of political liberalism under load and no load, and the liberal answers decreased under load. The authors didn't really discuss this or draw any conclusions from it.

[Dawnia]

Originally Posted by Digitonomy

It's more that those distracted and perhaps thinking about other things were more likely to answer the questions conservatively.

It's also worth pointing out that the paper doesn't really set out to study the correlation of liberal attitudes to low-effort thinking.Nonetheless, in the second study, which is the one you asked about and from which the above quote comes, they did compare endorsement of political liberalism under load and no load, and the liberal answers decreased under load. The authors didn't really discuss this or draw any conclusions from it.

Okay...confused there for a minute.