Feeding Stereotypes

"What we found is that conservatives tend to be higher in a trait called orderliness and lower in openness. What that means is they're more concerned about a sense of order and tradition, so they have this motive to preserve the current social order. On the other hand, liberalism tended to be more associated with compassion and empathy." So claims Jacob Hirsh, post-doctoral psychology researcher, University of Toronto.

Lead author on the paper.

Now that's fascinating. The long-held and -accepted hypothesis has always mentored societal awareness about political and social polarization, and now a study has cemented the theory. Neat stuff. The study in question set out to examine the correlation between personality traits and the adopted political stance that would naturally flow from those traits.

And it discovered, through studying 600 individuals from Canada and the U.S., that it 'figures'.

The study subjects simply placed themselves into categories of political leanings, without indicating any political party relationship. And the study's authors came to the conclusion from examining/questioning this relatively small group of people that a "massive genetic component" involves political orientation. Through personality trait/type.

Their conclusion: liberals are more compassionate, empathetic; conservatives are more polite, modest, respectful of social normatives, a sense of order and tradition. Actually a fact that most Conservatives could have told them. Similarly, most people of the Liberal persuasion, as in adhering to distinct political parties, would have informed the researchers that they are sweetly concerned with human emotions at every level.

What the study did not look at, likely because it would have been most inconvenient to their conclusions about finding truth in the "bleeding heart liberal" categorization, is the very reality of many individuals exhibiting all those traits. So what then, are they? People whose social conscience allies with respect for tradition, for example. Ah, social-humanist conservatives, of course.

How to explain that other studies have revealed that compassionate liberal types are less likely to surrender portions of their disposable income to charitable causes, whereas conservative types do, far more often? That doesn't quite fit in with their study indicating that right-leaning people score high in order, low in compassion.

Leading Jacob Hirsh to the opinion with which his paper concludes, that "compassionate conservative" represents "something of an oxymoron." Actually, the study seems to demonstrate something entirely other; that this man is a pretentious moron.

Oops, ad hominem comments are always inappropriately bad form; sorry about that.