Comments on: Left or Right, It’s All in Your Genes

By: Brenda

Brenda — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:57:46 +0000

I don’t see this at all and of course it IS a small and flawed study.

Education and mental health seems to be the only difference I have seen. Those who are well educated and nonsociopathic are more likely to be liberal or left-leaning.

By: BassMan

BassMan — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:47:29 +0000

I thought it was a well known fact that conservatism depends on fear. The question is: To what do we attribute the rise of the radical right? They are hardly conservative in the true sense of the word (even in its political definition.) They like to stir up fear, but what they want is a revolution.

By: merv

merv — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:29:34 +0000

There’s another interesting article/study done by Jonathan Haidt “WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?” He has found that conservatives actually have a far easier time understanding liberal decisions than liberals do understanding conservative decisions. In other words, conservatives are more likely to be able to imagine what’s going on in a liberals head than the other way around.

He goes on to make the argument that this inability of liberals to understand conservatice choice-making is detrimental to… well… ever getting anything done.

A search for the article should easily bring it up– interesting stuff…

By: GTT

GTT — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:57:01 +0000

I would love to see the results of a study like this on a large scale. And (no offence to anyone) it fits about right with the concept I had of both sides.

Here in Latin America we also have different political parties: the corrupt parties and the other corrupt parties. How are we supposed to vote? :) (Unless of course you are in Venezuela or you HAVE to vote for Chavez or you dont get a passport or identity papers… Sounds fun, no?)

By: Jennings

Jennings — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:14:16 +0000

That’s incredibly fascinating. I’ve seen studies before that show that a significant portion of people vote based off of emotional reactions anyways. Fear sounds like reasonable driver for much of this.

By: adrienne

adrienne — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:02:47 +0000

That’s a really interesting study. Great article! I’m liking these election season articles.

By: David K. Israel

David K. Israel — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:57:55 +0000

might explain why people become more conservative as they grow older and vote that way…

remember how fearless you were when you were 20?

By: Tricia

Tricia — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:30:50 +0000

Fascinating article Ransom! As a Democrat married to a Republican, any way to figure out our differences is a good way.