what makes a political conservative (Berkeley study) [View All]

[AP]

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtml

Four 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

...

Ten meta-analytic calculations performed on the material - which included various types
of literature and approaches from different countries and groups - yielded consistent,
common threads, Glaser said.

The avoidance of uncertainty, for example, as well as the striving for certainty, are
particularly tied to one key dimension of conservative thought - the resistance to change
or hanging onto the status quo, they said.

The terror management feature of conservatism can be seen in post-Sept. 11 America,
where many people appear to shun and even punish outsiders and those who threaten
the status of cherished world views, they wrote.

Concerns with fear and threat, likewise, can be linked to a second key dimension of
conservatism - an endorsement of inequality, a view reflected in the Indian caste system,
South African apartheid and the conservative, segregationist politics of the late Sen.
Strom Thurmond (R-South S.C.).

Disparate conservatives share a resistance to change and acceptance of inequality, the
authors said. Hitler, Mussolini, and former President Ronald Reagan were individuals, but
all were right-wing conservatives because they preached a return to an idealized past and
condoned inequality in some form. Talk host Rush Limbaugh can be described the same
way.