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Political Viewpoints Linked To Fear

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the scaredy-cats-and-retards-the-new-political-parties dept.

Pentagram writes "Researchers writing in Science report that the political orientation of test subjects who have strong views is linked to how easy they are to startle. They found that subjects who were more fearful were more likely to have right wing views, such as being in favor of capital punishment and higher defense budgets. The researchers suggest that this psychological difference is why it is so difficult to change people's minds in political arguments."

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  1. Re:So in other words... by adisakp · · Score: 5, Informative

    Republicans are cowards.

    Not necessarily. However, they are willing to give up freedoms for security and social stability is more important protections of minorities.

    TED had a very good talk about psychology of left vs. right without necessarily putting down one or the other.

    Basically, what they found out was that Liberals have two main axes of morality: Harm and Fairness.

    Conservatives have five: Harm, Fairness, In-Group, Authority, Purity.