4 ms·

Fear. Fear of being left behind by the economy, fear of being encroached on by immigrants, fear of terrorist attack. Not all fears are justified and proportio

by mturmon 11y ago

Fear. Fear of being left behind by the economy, fear of being encroached on by immigrants, fear of terrorist attack. Not all fears are justified and proportional, but it's easy to turn them to anger.

arethuza 11y ago
I'm sure I read a study a while back that found that people who have "right wing" views are more afraid - and this certainly agrees with my experiences in the UK (particularly Daily Mail readers). The US is rather more "right wing" than places like the UK so perhaps that leads to more fear? And as the wee green beastie said: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate.. to suffering ..." Edit: I think this is it: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology-john-hibbing-negativity-bias http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology... "political conservatives have a "negativity bias," meaning that they are physiologically more attuned to negative (threatening, disgusting) stimuli in their environments."
- andyjohnson0 11y ago
  "A number of studies have found that biology may be linked with political orientation. This means that biology is a possible factor in political orientation, but may also mean that the ideology a person identifies with changes a person's ability to perform certain tasks." [1] How cognitive biases affect our interpretation of political messages [2] "There is considerable evidence that people presented with balanced arguments place weight on those they already agree with, exhibiting what is termed confirmation bias." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_political_orientation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_political_orientat... [2] http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri3110/Details/P460%20Cognitive%20biases%20BMJ.pdf http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri3110/Details/P460%20Cognitive%20b...
- flubert 11y ago
  You may also enjoy: http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/either_conservatives_are_cowar.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/either_conservatives_...
- mike_hearn 11y ago
  According to Sowell's "Conflict of visions" theory, the primary difference between people with right wing vs left wing views is their intuitive assumption about the span of human nature. If you believe that human nature is malleable, perfectible and essentially good, then you tend to assume that the span of human potential is very large, i.e. the gap between the best of us and the worst of us is large. Sowell shows how this leads through basic logical deduction to left wing views. On the other hand if you believe that human nature is essentially fixed, unchanging over time and flawed, then you assume that the span of human nature is not very large, and the gap between the best and the worst is not that big. This leads by logical deduction to right wing views. So it's perhaps not so much that right wing people are more "afraid" per se, but rather, that they tend to be quicker to assume that as there's no way to fix 'enemies' by raising their human nature to a higher level, you may as well put in place systems that protect society from them. Whereas people with more left wing views may tend to assume that you can in fact negotiate and debate people away from being your 'enemies' and thus, they appear to be less fearful. The above description makes left wing views sound superior to right wing views, which was not my intention. In fact Sowell's book lays down an extremely fair and balanced description of both right and left wing beliefs and assumptions, with IMHO no discernable bias between them.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > The above description makes left wing views sound superior to right wing views, which was not my intention. It certainly wouldn't be Sowell's intention (you don't get to be a Hoover Institute fellow with that kind of attitude.) > In fact Sowell's book lays down an extremely fair and balanced description of both right and left wing beliefs and assumptions, with IMHO no discernable bias between them. As I understand it, A Conflict of Visions is the first part of a trilogy whose overall thrust, as I understand, is an attack on the "unconstrained" vision (the one you ascribe to the left wing -- not sure how accurate that reflects Sowell); though the first volume is mostly stage setting and the serious attacks are in the other two volumes. From your description, it may be fair and balanced (though, given everything else I've seen from Sowell, I wouldn't expect that except in the Fox News sense of "fair and balanced"), but it doesn't seem at all accurate of the difference between the left and the right (it might better explain some of the difference between the libertarian and the authoritarian -- though I would not describe it, even there, as the dominant or sole basis for either view -- and certainly its not unheard of for right-libertarians, especially American right-libertarians, which Sowell certainly is, to conflate the left-right and libertarian-authoritarian axes.)

by mturmon 11y ago

Fear. Fear of being left behind by the economy, fear of being encroached on by immigrants, fear of terrorist attack. Not all fears are justified and proportional, but it's easy to turn them to anger.

arethuza 11y ago

I'm sure I read a study a while back that found that people who have "right wing" views are more afraid - and this certainly agrees with my experiences in the UK (particularly Daily Mail readers). The US is rather more "right wing" than places like the UK so perhaps that leads to more fear? And as the wee green beastie said: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate.. to suffering ..." Edit: I think this is it: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology-john-hibbing-negativity-bias http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology... "political conservatives have a "negativity bias," meaning that they are physiologically more attuned to negative (threatening, disgusting) stimuli in their environments."

andyjohnson0 11y ago
"A number of studies have found that biology may be linked with political orientation. This means that biology is a possible factor in political orientation, but may also mean that the ideology a person identifies with changes a person's ability to perform certain tasks." [1] How cognitive biases affect our interpretation of political messages [2] "There is considerable evidence that people presented with balanced arguments place weight on those they already agree with, exhibiting what is termed confirmation bias." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_political_orientation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_political_orientat... [2] http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri3110/Details/P460%20Cognitive%20biases%20BMJ.pdf http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri3110/Details/P460%20Cognitive%20b...
flubert 11y ago
You may also enjoy: http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/either_conservatives_are_cowar.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/either_conservatives_...
mike_hearn 11y ago
According to Sowell's "Conflict of visions" theory, the primary difference between people with right wing vs left wing views is their intuitive assumption about the span of human nature. If you believe that human nature is malleable, perfectible and essentially good, then you tend to assume that the span of human potential is very large, i.e. the gap between the best of us and the worst of us is large. Sowell shows how this leads through basic logical deduction to left wing views. On the other hand if you believe that human nature is essentially fixed, unchanging over time and flawed, then you assume that the span of human nature is not very large, and the gap between the best and the worst is not that big. This leads by logical deduction to right wing views. So it's perhaps not so much that right wing people are more "afraid" per se, but rather, that they tend to be quicker to assume that as there's no way to fix 'enemies' by raising their human nature to a higher level, you may as well put in place systems that protect society from them. Whereas people with more left wing views may tend to assume that you can in fact negotiate and debate people away from being your 'enemies' and thus, they appear to be less fearful. The above description makes left wing views sound superior to right wing views, which was not my intention. In fact Sowell's book lays down an extremely fair and balanced description of both right and left wing beliefs and assumptions, with IMHO no discernable bias between them.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > The above description makes left wing views sound superior to right wing views, which was not my intention. It certainly wouldn't be Sowell's intention (you don't get to be a Hoover Institute fellow with that kind of attitude.) > In fact Sowell's book lays down an extremely fair and balanced description of both right and left wing beliefs and assumptions, with IMHO no discernable bias between them. As I understand it, A Conflict of Visions is the first part of a trilogy whose overall thrust, as I understand, is an attack on the "unconstrained" vision (the one you ascribe to the left wing -- not sure how accurate that reflects Sowell); though the first volume is mostly stage setting and the serious attacks are in the other two volumes. From your description, it may be fair and balanced (though, given everything else I've seen from Sowell, I wouldn't expect that except in the Fox News sense of "fair and balanced"), but it doesn't seem at all accurate of the difference between the left and the right (it might better explain some of the difference between the libertarian and the authoritarian -- though I would not describe it, even there, as the dominant or sole basis for either view -- and certainly its not unheard of for right-libertarians, especially American right-libertarians, which Sowell certainly is, to conflate the left-right and libertarian-authoritarian axes.)