Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 8:39:13 am
Breaking news from Berkeley, where researchers have identified the insidious factors that combine to produce the dreaded “political conservative:” Researchers help define what makes a political conservative. (Hat tip: grayp.)
Assistant Professor Jack Glaser of the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy and Visiting Professor Frank Sulloway of UC Berkeley joined lead author, Associate Professor John Jost of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and Professor Arie Kruglanski of the University of Maryland at College Park, to analyze the literature on conservatism.
[The] researchers, who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism, report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:
Fear and aggression
Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
Uncertainty avoidance
Need for cognitive closure
Terror management
...They also stressed that their findings are not judgmental.