We’re not so different, liberals and conservatives
Everyone, including political moderates, overestimates the gap between liberal and conservative morals, according to the new study published today (Dec. 12) in the journal PLOS ONE. …
Graham and his colleagues based their work on previous research that has found real differences in the ways liberals and conservatives view morals. Essentially, people see morality through five different domains, these studies have found. The first is harm/care, or concerns about treating people with compassion and sympathy. The second is fairness/reciprocity, which has to do with ideals about justice and rights.
Both conservatives and liberals care about these first two domains, but liberals tend to put more emphasis on them than conservatives. Meanwhile, the study found, the last three moral areas are important to conservatives, and less so to liberals. These three areas are all focused on group morality. The first is ingroup/loyalty, which includes patriotic concerns and “us versus them”-style arguments. The second is authority/respect, which demands respect for tradition and social order. The final domain is purity/sanctity, which includes such beliefs as “the body is a temple” and similar religious purity concerns. [8 Ways Religion Impacts Your Life]
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Maybe you aren’t much different from a jacka$$ but I am.
platypus on December 13, 2012 at 7:53 PM
Can we go around strutting about how much more mentally developed and superior we are now?
In all seriousness, I like the groupings of moral sentiments they mention (loyalty, authority, purity, reciprocity, and harm). When it comes to exaggeration, though, I’d like to see some more specifics about the precise nature in which they think exaggeration occurs. Because when it comes to hard, concrete examples dealing with public policy, the differences are immense.
Stoic Patriot on December 13, 2012 at 7:58 PM
I’ll start with one big difference: liberals are apparently 4 times more likely to participate in stupid studies.
theperfecteconomist on December 13, 2012 at 8:02 PM
Liberal morality is basically a means of avoiding guilt when it isn’t an excuse for a party.
Count to 10 on December 13, 2012 at 8:04 PM
Liberals pay lip service to the things they say they care about. Conservatives live the things they say they care about.
They say they care about the poor, but when it is shown that the policies they are promoting is actually harmful to the long term benefit of the people they are meant to help, they keep pursuing those policies and even double down on the bad policies.
astonerii on December 13, 2012 at 8:05 PM
Leftists have no morals. Most of them are demented, depraved nihilists. Normal people share little with such monstrous errors of evolution. The only reasonable position that most Western leftists hold is their self-hate. They are despicable.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on December 13, 2012 at 8:18 PM
Perhaps they should have included some avowed Nazi’s or Communists as a control group. I am certain they would also have said that they cared about fairness, harm, and sympathy as well.
The question is what do you mean by those things?
The Communist thinks that it is fair that you give up your wealth and property so that everyone gets an equal share. That’s compassionate, caring, fair and just in his mind.
sharrukin on December 13, 2012 at 8:27 PM
LOL.
Leftist compassion and sympathy: Liverpool Care Pathway for the old, the young, and those who aren’t leftists. Abortion for all!
Leftist fairness/reciprocity: Eat the rich. Affirmative action. Punish success … so losers won’t feel bad about themselves. Call them the losers they are and you die! To a leftist, convicted murderers have more “rights” than any civilized person, illegals have more rights than any citizen.
Leftists are despicable, lying scumbags. That’s why their fathers hated them so much. Anyone would.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on December 13, 2012 at 8:30 PM
Me (conservatives ): Donate food and hard earned money to feed the hungry.
Liberals: Take money from other people and then give it to the poor and say they care.
Yeah not so much the same.
watertown on December 13, 2012 at 8:46 PM
LOL! PWNED!
Seriously, that was brilliant.
I’ve run into several of the same lines of non-logic, weaksauce insults, and windup-toy mentalities on both sides. There are extremists on both sides, politics is a circle.
But when you dig down deep – past the level of kneejerk responses – there IS a fundamental difference between the average person on the left and right.
MelonCollie on December 13, 2012 at 9:08 PM
And you’re not so bright.
davidk on December 13, 2012 at 9:32 PM
Another meaningless study. One that seems to depend solely on political buzz words that have taken on Orwellian meanings.
besser tot als rot on December 13, 2012 at 9:39 PM
For instance, where we live. Those on the right live in reality; those on the left live in fantasyland.
besser tot als rot on December 13, 2012 at 9:40 PM
There’s nothing liberal about you prog fascists. We also have very little in common beyond human anatomy.
WeekendAtBernankes on December 13, 2012 at 9:58 PM
LOL A+
Libs have no morals.
beachgirlusa on December 13, 2012 at 10:14 PM