The Republican Brain (13 page)

Authoritarians and the closed-minded, therefore, are our broadest and easiest avenue into understanding why we find conservatives today so misaligned with empirical reality. Without suggesting that every conservative fits this description, it's easy to see how those who do exhibit these characteristics would be likely to be paragons of biased and defensive reasoning.

But do such tendencies also arise on the extreme political left? I'll get to that difficult and crucial question soon enough.

I've only begun to survey the relevant research on liberal and conservative differences. But thus far, these differences seem to imply an
asymmetry
between the two groups when it comes to ideological rigidity and inflexibility. The open personality is much more accepting of change and new ideas; the closed personality should be expected to show much more defensiveness, and even the angry rejection of inconvenient truths.

Scott Eidelman, a social psychologist at the University of Arkansas whose stunning study of liberals and drunkenness we'll encounter soon enough, summarizes the “asymmetry” position nicely. As he put it to me in an interview:

Just by virtue of their ideological stance, liberals can tolerate difference, they can tolerate not knowing, wondering ‘it could be this, it could be that.' They can tolerate someone saying, ‘you've got it wrong.' Liberals are just more open to all of that. It's less of a problem, it's less of a concern. They're much more open to compromise, more open to experience—what would otherwise be threatening to people would not be as threatening because of their ideological disposition.

But as noted in the last chapter, despite a number of studies showing greater conservative bias, many researchers who work on motivated reasoning take a different view—namely, ideological
symmetry.
They would counter that there's no inherent reason to think that liberals would not also engage in motivated reasoning if they believed something strongly enough, and made it central enough to their identities.

So which viewpoint is right: The asymmetry thesis, or the symmetry thesis? That's the critical question at the center of our politics and our battle over reality—and one that this book hopes to help resolve. But we first have to examine the differences between liberals and conservatives in another crucial area: Morality.

Notes

59
a lengthy and dense study
John Jost et al, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 2003, vol. 129, No. 3, 339–375.

59
study of closed-mindedness
Arie Kruglanski,
The Psychology of Closed-Mindedness
, New York: Psychology Press, 2004.

60
The scientists cautioned
Arie Kruglanski and John Jost, “Political Opinion, Not Pathology,”
Washington Post
(oped), August 28, 2003.

60
“within a completely normal range of responding”
Interview with John Jost, June 21, 2011.

60
“In times of great uncertainty . . .”
Interview with Arie Kruglanski, June 2, 2011.

60
“Loving America is too simple an emotion”
Ann Coulter, “Closure on nuance,” July 31, 2003 column, available online at
http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2003/07/31/closure_on_nuance
.

61
“certain ideas . . . are true for all time”
Cal Thomas, “Like I'm psychologically disturbed,” July 29, 2003 column. Available online at
http://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2003/07/29/like_im_psychologically_disturbed
.

61
the “Conservatives are Crazy” study
Byron York, “The ‘Conservatives Are Crazy' Study,”
National Review
, August 1, 2003, available online at
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/207712/conservatives-are-crazy-study/byron-york
.

61
Tom Feeney
Quoted in Byron York, 2003.

61
Berkeley College Republicans
Megan Greenwell, “Reagan No Hitler, Says UC GOP Group,”
The Berkeley Daily Planet
, July 29, 2003. Available online at
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2003–07–29/article/17081
.

61
“they epitomized all the things they were trying to deny”
Interview with John Jost, June 21, 2011.

62
“the results clearly stand up”
Interview with John Jost, June 21, 2011.

63
“The stereotype of liberalism”
Jonathan Chait, “Why Liberals Like Compromise and Conservatives Hate It,”
The New Republic
(Online), March 3, 2011, available online at
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/84630/why-liberals-compromise-and-conservatives-hate-it
.

64
“Big Five” traits
For an overview that focuses on Openness in particular see Robert R. McCrae, “Social Consequences of Experiential Openness,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 1996, Vol. 120, No. 3, pp. 323–337.

64
significantly rooted in genetics
Written interview with Robert McCrae, September 13, 2011.

64
don't change much over the course of our lifetimes
Caspi et al, “Children's behavioral styles at age 3 are linked to their adult personality traits at age 26,”
Journal of Personality
, 2003, Vol. 71, 495–514.

64
persist across cultures
Robert R. McCrae and Antonio Terracciano, “Universal Features of Personality Traits from the Observer's Perspective: Data from 50 Cultures,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 2005, Vol. 88, No. 3, 547–561. See also Robert R. McCrae and Antonio Terracciano, “Personality Profiles of Cultures: Aggregate Personality Traits,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 2005, Vol. 89, No. 3, 407–425.

64
liberals consistently rate higher on Openness
Robert R. McCrae, “Social Consequences of Experiential Openness,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 1996, Vol. 120, No. 3, pp. 323–337, noting, “a case can be made for saying that
variations in experiential Openness are the major psychological determinant of political polarities.
” For another summary of studies, see John Jost et al, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 2003, vol. 129, No. 3, pp. 356–357.

64
“Open people everywhere tend to have more liberal values”
Written interview with Robert McCrae, September 13, 2011.

64
So what does it mean to be Open?
This overview draws upon McCrae, R. R., & Sutin, A. R. (2009). “Openness to Experience.” In M. R. Leary and R. H. Hoyle (Eds.),
Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior
(pp. 257–273). New York: Guilford.

65
Conservatives also appear to tend toward more Extraversion
Alan S. Gerber et al, “Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships Across Issue Domains and Political Contexts,”
American Political Science Review
, February 2010, p. 1–23.

65
score about the same on Agreeableness
Jacob B. Hirsh et al, “Compassionate Liberals and Polite Conservatives: Associations of Agreeableness With Political Ideology and Moral Values,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 655–664, 2010.

66
personality is at least as big of an influence
Alan S. Gerber et al, “Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships Across Issue Domains and Political Contexts,”
American Political Science Review
, February 2010, p. 1–23.

66
cast it in terms of percentages
Gerber et al, “Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships Across Issue Domains and Political Contexts.” Distribution percentiles were approximated using standard normal density function area calculations. My thanks to Gretchen Tanner Goldman for performing the calculations.

66
bedrooms of conservatives
Carney, D.R. et al, “The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind,”
Political Psychology
, 2008, Vol. 29, No. 6, 807–840.

67
“red states” and “blue states” partly reflect personality
Rentfrow, P.J., Jost, J.T., Gosling, S.D., & Potter, J. (2009). Statewide differences in personality predict voting patterns in 1996–2004 U.S. Presidential Elections. In J.T. Jost, A.C. Kay, & H. Thorisdottir (Eds
.), Social and psychological bases of ideology and system justification
(pp. 314–347). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

68
“you'd win a lot of money in Las Vegas”
Interview with John Jost, July 21, 2011.

68
between four and seven times more likely to be a conservative
Jost et al, “Exceptions that Prove the Rule—Using a Theory of Motivated Social Cognition to Account for Ideological Incongruities and Political Anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 2003, Vol. 129, No., 3, pp. 383–393.

68
need for cognitive closure
See Arie W. Kruglanski et al, “Motivated Resistance and Openness to Persuasion in the Presence or Absence of Prior Information,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 1993, Vol. 65, No. 5, pp. 861–876.

69
conservatives tend to have a greater need for closure than do liberals
John Jost et al, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 2003, vol. 129, No. 3, 339–375. See in particular pp. 358–360.

69
“The finding is very robust”
Interview with Arie Kruglanski, June 2, 2011.

69
“epistemic closure”
See Patricia Cohen, “‘Epistemic Closure'? Those Are Fighting Words,”
The New York Times
, April 27, 2010, available online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/books/28conserv.html
.

69
liberals often have more “need for cognition”
Robert R. McCrae, “Social Consequences of Experiential Openness,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 1996, Vol. 120, No. 3, pp. 323–337. See also Cyril J. Sadowski and Helen E. Cogburn, “Need for Cognition in the Big Five Factor Structure,”
The Journal of Psychology
, 1997, Vol. 131, No. 3, pp. 307–312, showing that scoring high on the need for cognition is associated with the personality traits of Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness.

69
integrative complexity
Philip E. Tetlock, “Cognitive Style and Political Ideology,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 1983, Vol. 45, No. 1, 118–126.

70
liberal and moderate senators rated higher on integrative complexity
Philip E. Tetlock, “Cognitive Style and Political Ideology,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 1983, Vol. 45, No. 1, 118–126.

70
British House of Commons
Philip E. Tetlock, “Cognitive Style and Political Belief Systems in the British House of Commons,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 1984, Vol. 46, No. 2, 365–375.

70
Supreme Court justices
Tetlock, P. E., Bernzweig, J., & Gallant, J. L. (1985). Supreme Court decision making: Cognitive style as a predictor of ideological consistency of voting.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 48, 1227–1239.

70
Winston Churchill
Philip E. Tetlock and Anthony Tyler, “Churchill's Cognitive and Rhetorical Style: The Debates Over Nazi Intentions and Self-Government for India,”
Political Psychology
, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996.

70
abolitionists were just as low in IC as defenders of slavery
Philip E. Tetlock et al, “The Slavery Debate in Antebellum America: Cognitive Style, Value Conflict, and the Limits of Compromise,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 1994, Vol. 66, No. 1, 115–126.

71
the tolerance of uncertainty or ambiguity
John Jost et al, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 2003, vol. 129, No. 3, 339–375. For uncertainty tolerance and ambiguity tolerance in particular. See pp. 353–358.

71
stronger tendency to firmly categorize the world
Everett Young, “Why We're Liberal, Why We're Conservative: A Cognitive Theory on the Origins of Ideological Thinking,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Stony Brook University, December 2009.

71
very low Openness
Robert R. McCrae, “Social Consequences of Experiential Openness,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 1996, Vol. 120, No. 3, pp. 323–337, noting, “There is evidence that authoritarianism is closely related to the low pole of Openness.”