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Study: 'Low-effort' Thinking Promotes Conservatism


cybercoma

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"People endorse conservative ideology more when they have to give a first or fast response," the study's lead author, University of Arkansas psychologist Dr. Scott Eidelman, said in a written statement released by the university.

Does the finding suggest that conservatives are lazy thinkers?

"Not quite," Dr. Eidelman told The Huffington Post in an email. "Our research shows that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism, not that political conservatives use low-effort thinking."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/07/conservative-politics-low-effort-thinking_n_1410448.html

Thoughts, low-level or otherwise?

"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions." --Thomas Jefferson

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Thoughts??

Where's PIK to refute this "complete nonsense"!!!

High brow enough?

Nah. It's a study, so TimG will be in here shortly to tell us how psychology isn't really science and how their methodology was certainly flawed and that anyone can make any study to come to any conclusion they want.

"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions." --Thomas Jefferson

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Thoughts, low-level or otherwise?

My thoughts are that for some reason, liberals are unable to discuss and debate actual policy. So instead, they fund "study" after "study" claiming that anyone that disagrees with them is somehow thinking incorrectly.

*Breaking News*

A few months from now, there will be another "new study" claiming that liberals are right and conservatives are wrong. :lol:

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In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification). In Study 2, participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts. In Study 3, time pressure increased participants’ endorsement of conservative terms. In Study 4, participants considering political terms in a cursory manner endorsed conservative terms more than those asked to cogitate; an indicator of effortful thought (recognition memory) partially mediated the relationship between processing effort and conservatism. Together these data suggest that political conservatism may be a process consequence of low-effort thought; when effortful, deliberate thought is disengaged, endorsement of conservative ideology increases.

Did you ever go to a bar, get trashed, and start thinking that tax cuts were a great idea ?

Me neither.

This doesn't seem to be a very practical test, or maybe my cognitive load is such that I'm turning conservative at this moment.

Or maybe this is just silly.

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In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification)....

Or maybe as alcohol intoxication increased, the thin veneer of political correctness peeled away and people let slip their real thoughts, which, being less politically correct, were more "conservative".

Nah. It's a study, so TimG will be in here shortly to tell us how psychology isn't really science and how their methodology was certainly flawed and that anyone can make any study to come to any conclusion they want.

Yup... and he'll pretty much be right. Too many variables, too few of them are known, to possibly make any valid conclusion in a case like this.

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Or maybe as alcohol intoxication increased, the thin veneer of political correctness peeled away and people let slip their real thoughts, which, being less politically correct, were more "conservative".

:)

I've yet to come across any conservatism which is not drenched in political correctness.

“There is a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political masters in Washington. All we had was Afghanistan to wave. On every other file we were offside. Eventually we came onside on Haiti, so we got another arrow in our quiver."

--Bill Graham, Former Canadian Foreign Minister, 2007

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Or maybe as alcohol intoxication increased, the thin veneer of political correctness peeled away and people let slip their real thoughts, which, being less politically correct, were more "conservative".

Youre assuming that political correctness exists only on one end of the political spectrum, but its spread evenly across the whole thing... its just invoked for different sacred cows is all.

I question things because I am human. And call no one my father who's no closer than a stranger

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US vs THEM mentality is generally very low-level thought process.

Afterall, it is one of our most basic evolutionary instincts for self-preservation.

Edited by MiddleClassCentrist

Ideology does not make good policy. Good policy comes from an analysis of options, comparison of options and selection of one option that works best in the current situation. This option is often a compromise between ideologies.

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Guest Manny

Real conservatives are usually older. They are quite capable of thinking. Simply put, "Low effort thinking" means being able to think with only minimal effort required.

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True. Isn't that kinda like the divisive nature of this thread? How do you figure.

It's a lot simpler to hate or love with no shades of grey in between :)

Sometimes, one side is so polarized that anyone falling in the other direction is "the enemy".

Ideology does not make good policy. Good policy comes from an analysis of options, comparison of options and selection of one option that works best in the current situation. This option is often a compromise between ideologies.

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Real conservatives are usually older. They are quite capable of thinking. Simply put, "Low effort thinking" means being able to think with only minimal effort required.

All you have to do is look at what media targets conservative mindsets to know.

The SUN.

There you go. Simple minded, sensational news where it is always us vs them in every broadcast... to the point of more like a teen "reality" tv drama episode.

I'm not arguing that most conservatives are simple minded, just that they do tend to target the simple minded.

Ideology does not make good policy. Good policy comes from an analysis of options, comparison of options and selection of one option that works best in the current situation. This option is often a compromise between ideologies.

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I'm not arguing that most conservatives are simple minded, just that they do tend to target the simple minded.

The study doesn't say conservatives are simple-minded either, just that low-level thinking tends to support conservative values.

"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions." --Thomas Jefferson

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Guest Manny

All you have to do is look at what media targets conservative mindsets to know.

The SUN.

There you go. Simple minded, sensational news where it is always us vs them in every broadcast... to the point of more like a teen "reality" tv drama episode.

They are faux-conservatives. They hijacked the name.

Most of the young people I know seem very, very liberal. They also seem very,very naive. An attribute of this is not seeing the full consequences of ones actions. It's up to us wiser folks to help them get through this stage of their lives with minimal harm to themselves and others.

No sadly what you folks see as conservative today is not even what I'm talking about. These are just extremely selfish and arrogant people. Jealousy, greed, apathy, wrath, pride. They've got em all. But of course they also portray themselves as devout christians. You can almost taste the irony (kind of a metallic taste). They're here to mislead you actually, so that you will hate the virtues of real conservatism, which in fact they fear the most.

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Manny's certainly right, that there are of course all sorts of self-labelled "conservatives" who don't tend to share all that much in common.

Hell, a middle-aged lefty like myself has witnessed enough liberal idiocy that I have to give conservatives some benefit of the doubt.

Edited by bleeding heart

“There is a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political masters in Washington. All we had was Afghanistan to wave. On every other file we were offside. Eventually we came onside on Haiti, so we got another arrow in our quiver."

--Bill Graham, Former Canadian Foreign Minister, 2007

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