Whiney future conservatives? Igloo read this! :D

[destruction]

Hey Igloo..... Was this you as a child???

How to spot a baby conservative

KID POLITICS | Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ...

Mar. 19, 2006. 10:45 AM

KURT KLEINER

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

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.

"I found it to be biased, shoddy work, poor science at best," he said of the Block study. He thinks insecure, defensive, rigid people can as easily gravitate to left-wing ideologies as right-wing ones. He suspects that in Communist China, those kinds of people would likely become fervid party members.

The results do raise some obvious questions. Are nursery school teachers in the conservative heartland cursed with classes filled with little proto-conservative whiners?

Or does an insecure little boy raised in Idaho or Alberta surrounded by conservatives turn instead to liberalism?

Or do the whiny kids grow up conservative along with the majority of their more confident peers, while only the kids with poor impulse control turn liberal?

Part of the answer is that personality is not the only factor that determines political leanings. For instance, there was a .27 correlation between being self-reliant in nursery school and being a liberal as an adult. Another way of saying it is that self-reliance predicts statistically about 7 per cent of the variance between kids who became liberal and those who became conservative. (If every self-reliant kid became a liberal and none became conservatives, it would predict 100 per cent of the variance). Seven per cent is fairly strong for social science, but it still leaves an awful lot of room for other influences, such as friends, family, education, personal experience and plain old intellect.

For conservatives whose feelings are still hurt, there is a more flattering way for them to look at the results. Even if they really did tend to be insecure complainers as kids, they might simply have recognized that the world is a scary, unfair place.

Their grown-up conclusion that the safest thing is to stick to tradition could well be the right one. As for their "rigidity," maybe that's just moral certainty.

The grown-up liberal men, on the other hand, with their introspection and recognition of complexity in the world, could be seen as self-indulgent and ineffectual.

Whether anyone's feelings are hurt or not, the work suggests that personality and emotions play a bigger role in our political leanings than we think. All of us, liberal or conservative, feel as though we've reached our political opinions by carefully weighing the evidence and exercising our best judgment. But it could be that all of that careful reasoning is just after-the-fact self-justification. What if personality forms our political outlook, with reason coming along behind, rationalizing after the fact?

It could be that whom we vote for has less to do with our judgments about tax policy or free trade or health care, and more with the personalities we've been stuck with since we were kids.

Kurt Kleiner is a Toronto-based freelance science writer.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142722231554&call_pageid=970599119419

[sextacy911]

This is just another desperate shot at the republicans. These liberal reporters, presidential candidates and especially senators, such ad Ted, are making the left wing look like complete idiots. The fact is that republicans are known to be the proud and confident party. Also, the whole Bush-bashing ideology is truely not working on the American public. The Democrats did the same thing with Reagan and he turned out to be one of the best presidents ever. Mark my words; 10-15 years from now, George W. Bush will be known as one of the best presidents of the United States.

[chris817]

Also, the whole Bush-bashing ideology is truely not working on the American public. The Democrats did the same thing with Reagan and he turned out to be one of the best presidents ever. Mark my words; 10-15 years from now, George W. Bush will be known as one of the best presidents of the United States.

Bush bashing might not be working b/c it does not have to... He is doing a great job himself losing the publics confidence in him

GW Bush will never be known as one of the best, no matter how Iraq turns out.. Too many mishandlings..Iraq.ss reform, Katrina, debt.. blah blah blah

Not all democrats are liberals and not all republicans are conservatives.. There are a whole bunch of us in the middle who are sick of hearing both sides bitch and moan...

I do agree though that his fate will only be determined by future generations.. Mostly on how Iraq turns out

[sextacy911]

First of all... jegshamesh.. i like your avatar... lol ... I agree that things haven't gone well for Bush. But it seems as though whatever Bush does, its not enough for the critics. They look past the fact that we liberated the people in Afghanistan and are in the process of liberating the people of Iraq. He took down one of the greatest dictators of all time, Saddam Hussein. We caught more than half of the top Al Quida suspects and forced the group out of the government position in Afghanistan. The left is always whining about the poor people in third world countries and how the US govt never helps them, but once we get the chance to liberate them from a supressive govt and at the same time protect our own security they turn sour. I know for a fact that if US didn't invade Afghanistan or Iraq, the leftists would be complaining that Bush hadn't done anything about 9/11. I personally think he reacted to the situation as best he could. each their own though.. every1 has their opinions...

[chris817]

First of all... jegshamesh.. i like your avatar... lol ... I agree that things haven't gone well for Bush. But it seems as though whatever Bush does, its not enough for the critics. They look past the fact that we liberated the people in Afghanistan and are in the process of liberating the people of Iraq. He took down one of the greatest dictators of all time, Saddam Hussein. We caught more than half of the top Al Quida suspects and forced the group out of the government position in Afghanistan. The left is always whining about the poor people in third world countries and how the US govt never helps them, but once we get the chance to liberate them from a supressive govt and at the same time protect our own security they turn sour. I know for a fact that if US didn't invade Afghanistan or Iraq, the leftists would be complaining that Bush hadn't done anything about 9/11. I personally think he reacted to the situation as best he could. each their own though.. every1 has their opinions...

I agree with you that bush does get bashed for everything.. Republican congress and the house gets a huge pass. There have been some major blunders. We have liberated the people of Iraq but you have to admit they did not plan for the after effect. They really believed that people would be showering them with flowers and everybody would be cool.. There are 3 major demographics who hate each other on the brink of civil war right now. Which is fine but our troops should not be in the middle of that...I don't know anybody who was against us invading afghanistan except the real nuts.. (some people were against us going into ww2) i do think invading Iraq was the right thing to do, but was poorly planned.. now its turned into a mess

[bxbomb]

Mark my words; 10-15 years from now, George W. Bush will be known as one of the best presidents of the United States.

i just pissed myself

gonna be hard to go down as one of the best when he is impeached once the dems get control back at the end of the yr.

[sextacy911]

I agree with you that bush does get bashed for everything.. Republican congress and the house gets a huge pass. There have been some major blunders. We have liberated the people of Iraq but you have to admit they did not plan for the after effect. They really believed that people would be showering them with flowers and everybody would be cool.. There are 3 major demographics who hate each other on the brink of civil war right now. Which is fine but our troops should not be in the middle of that...I don't know anybody who was against us invading afghanistan except the real nuts.. (some people were against us going into ww2) i do think invading Iraq was the right thing to do, but was poorly planned.. now its turned into a mess

See, this is a view I can agree with. The aftermath was planned very poorly. To tell you the truth, I have a theory on why we invaded the two countries.

Take a good look at what lies between Iraq and Afghanistan. Note that Pakistan and Turkmenistan are both considered allies.

Iran is definitely next...

[chris817]

See, this is a view I can agree with. The aftermath was planned very poorly. To tell you the truth, I have a theory on why we invaded the two countries.

Take a good look at what lies between Iraq and Afghanistan. Note that Pakistan and Turkmenistan are both considered allies.

Iran is definitely next...

No doubt that is why you are hearing all this nonsense from Iran's leader... He is shitting his pants, but he is just a wannabe nut with a microphone and the world is listening...

Too bad we do not have the troops to invade

Nice debate-civil and no name calling a rare thing on this board