9/4/16

Personality differences between liberals and conservatives

A problem from social psychologist Richard Haidt: Two men react to their first view of Michelangelo's David. Which one voted for George Bush?

Same one who eats at Applebee's every Friday night instead of trying that new Chinese-Mexican fusion fast food place. And how did you know, anyway?  One reason is that we have some assumptions about differences in personality between conservatives and liberals.  And what is personality, anyway?

Remember, back in high school, when you might have tried to fix your brother up with a blind date, and you said, “She’s got a great personality!” when what you meant was that she was bubbly and extroverted and fun to be around? That’s not what I mean here. And BTW, how’d that work out for you?

 

Anyway, personality is a unique pattern of thoughts and feelings and behaviors that generally persists through long periods of time.  It’s what makes us, us. There have been a ton of theories on what personality is and how to describe it and where it comes from, but the general consensus now is that you can describe a person’s personality using five different qualities.  Here's some more detail:

I score high on Agreeableness and lower on Conscientiousness and Extraversion. That means I’m kinda introverted and nerdish except when I’m with really good friends. I’m generally really pleasant to be around but have to work very hard at being organized and getting things done. That’s my personality. If you want to find out about yours, you can take the personality test here:  http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/  Feel free to skip the optional questions at the bottom, but be sure to indicate whether you told the truth or not!

So what does that have to do with politics?  Reliably, time after time and in the US, Canada and Great Britain, liberals and conservatives show different traits. Liberals are much more likely to be open to new experiences than conservatives. Conservatives are much more likely to be conscientious and reliable.

So when a free-wheeling liberal looks at a conservative, she might see him as a stick in the mud and he might see her as flipping on important issues.. A careful and organized conservative might look at a more impulsive liberal and see her as careless and disorganized while she might see him as rigid. It just depends on your point of view.

I think a more balanced view would see the liberal as being open to new viewpoints while the conservative sees himself as steadfast. The conservative would see himself as more responsible while the liberal would see herself as focusing on the big picture rather than details.

Based on some analyses I’ve seen, our current president scores very high on conscientiousness (up till 2:00 am every morning, getting prepped for the next day, that kind of thing) and very, very low on neuroticism.  I remember vividly his funny speech at the White House Press Corps Dinner on April 30, 2011. He had just come from planning the assassination of Osama ben Laden and left the dinner to go back and finish the job, which he announced the evening of May 1.  But if you watch his speech at the dinner, you can’t tell at all that he might be under any stress. Cool as a cucumber. I would NEVER play poker with this man.