When Al Franken was a 3 year old toddler, he was self-reliant, loving, energetic, and a born leader. When Rush Limbaugh was 3 years old, he was suspicious, easily offended, and inhibited.Seed Magazine reported on a study published in the Journal of Research in Personality about the connection between a person's political orientation and his or her nursery school personality.
From Seed Magazine:
[The study] ... reported a link between certain childhood personality traits and adult political orientation in a test group followed over two decades. As nursery schoolers, the future conservatives were described as easily victimized, indecisive, rigid, fearful and inhibited. The budding liberals were described as self-reliant, prone to developing close relationships, energetic and somewhat dominating."Easily victimized" - well that explains Bill O'Reilly. "Rigid & inhibited" explains Anne Coulter. I'll bet it was hell trying to potty-train little Anne!
...
[A second study] ... found that an adult displaying heightened needs to manage uncertainty and threat was associated with an attraction to conservative ideas, while openness to new experiences and cognitive complexity correlated with liberal ideas.
Seriously, I have no idea how valid this study is. But it was published in a peer-reviewed journal, and so I expect similar experiments are now in the works that will either confirm, or overturn the results.
But it seems so plausable, doesn't it?
1 comment:
It does seem plausible- maybe that's because I'm a liberal, but it seems to me that a lot of the more conservative viewpoints I've encountered spring from fear (usually of the unknown). Well, that or jealousy. (You know: "I wish I could do that, but I can't or I think I can't, so nobody else should be allowed to do it either.")
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