I did not write these articles nor have I contributed to them. However, if you have ever wondered what the difference is between liberal and conservative you should read everything here. You will learn things about the people who make up our society. You may learn things about yourself.

After reviewing this information I'll ask you to read Global Nobles where we compare government, religion and corporate power.

In general, Conservative and Liberal are relevant terms that actually apply to human characteristics. Liberals are, in general, more open minded in their pursuit of creativity, novelty, and diversity, whereas conservatives seek lives that are more orderly, conventional, and better organized.  Seventy five years of research have confirmed these characteristics. The results have an affect on a person’s openness to experience and conscientiousness. These variances are revealed in the way people evaluate themselves. It shows up in their beliefs, values and preferences. It is evident in their social interactions, their personal possessions and the spaces they occupy. Our political world is designed around these characteristics. Any global effort to improve civilization should be well aware of these characteristics. Based on the nature of these variances it is easy to say good or bad things about either side. It will become evident that this variance in people can be used to enhance creativity or it can be used to pit one side against the other and create a controlled release of hostile energy. I’ll let you read the genuine article to determine how we should interact with each other in behalf of civilization building.

I am displaying the beginning of this document and you will have to download the documents in PDF files to read everything.

The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives:

Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles,
and the Things They Leave Behind

Dana R. Carney

Harvard University

John T. Jost

New York University

Samuel D. Gosling and Kate Niederhoffer

University of Texas at Austin

Jeff Potter

Atof, Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts

Please send editorial correspondence to:

John T. Jost

Department of Psychology

New York University

6 Washington Place, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10003

Liberals and conservatives 1

Abstract

Seventy-five years of theory and research on personality differences between political liberals and conservatives has produced a long list of dispositions, traits, and behaviors. Applying a “Five Factor Model” framework to this yield, we find that two traits, Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness, parsimoniously capture many of the ways in which individual differences underlying political orientation have been conceptualized. In four studies we investigate the relationship between personality and political orientation using multiple domains and measurement techniques, including: self-reported personality assessment; explicit beliefs, values, and preferences; nonverbal behavior in the context of social interaction; and personal possessions and the characteristics of living and working spaces. We obtained consistent and converging evidence that personality differences between liberals and conservatives are robust, replicable, and behaviorally significant. In general, liberals are more open minded in their pursuit of creativity, novelty, and diversity, whereas conservatives seek lives that are more orderly, conventional, and better organized.

Liberals and conservatives 2

 

The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives:

Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind

For almost as long as social scientists have located political orientation on a single left—right (or, in the United States, a liberal—conservative) dimension, they have speculated about the personality characteristics that typify each ideological pole (e.g., Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950; Costantini & Craik, 1980; DiRenzo, 1974; Eysenck, 1954; McClosky, 1958; Tomkins, 1963). As Tetlock and Mitchell (1993) have pointed out, it is possible to generate either flattering or unflattering psychological portraits at either end of the political spectrum. The important question, from a scientific point of view, is not whether any given theory is gratifying to left-wing or right-wing audiences, but whether it possesses truth value. Obtaining an accurate understanding of the personality needs and characteristics of liberals and conservatives has taken on added urgency in the current political climate, in which people from liberal “blue” states find it increasingly difficult to understand people from conservative “red” states and vice versa (see Bishop, 2004; Rentfrow, Jost, Gosling, & Potter, 2006).  In this article, we draw on eclectic sources of data to investigate the degree to which historical speculations concerning the traits of liberals and conservatives possess genuine diagnostic utility, that is, empirical accuracy.1 We address three main questions. First, does political orientation covary with basic personality dimensions in the ways that have been suggested (but rarely tested) by psychological theorists over the past several decades? Second, what, specifically, are the differences (as well as similarities) between liberals and conservatives in terms of attitudes, tastes, and preferences, and how strong are they? Third, if there are indeed meaningful psychological differences between liberals and conservatives, how are they manifested in daily behavior?

Theories of Personality and Political Orientation

Influential theories mapping personality profiles to political ideology were developed by Jaensch (1938), Fromm (1947, 1964), Adorno et al. (1950), Tomkins (1963), Brown (1965), Bem (1970), and Wilson (1973), among others. In this section, we review a number of these perspectives, which span the last 75 years. All of these theories assume that specific “ideologies have for different individuals, ---------------

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