A book by a guy named Jonathan Haidt just came out that describes what a lot of data says about the difference between conservatives and liberals. I tend to be pretty skeptical about liberal social research, but the conclusions of this work resonated with me. The premise is summed up in a quote from this article:
According to Haidt’s research, there are five things people care about:
- avoidance of harm
- fairness
- loyalty
- authority
- sanctity
Conservatives care about all five in equal measure and liberals care about only the first two. Here is a quote from the book, as transcribed by The American Conservative:
“It’s as though conservatives can hear five octaves of music, but liberals respond to just two, within which they have become particularly discerning.”
There is a sixth thing which the book claims people care about, but for which liberals have a fundamentally different definition than conservatives. That is liberty. That was particularly enlightening. Here is another quote from this first article I saw on the new book (I read three. The other two are here and here.).
Conservatives tend to view liberty as the notion of being left alone to pursue happiness in whatever way they choose. Liberals tend to view it as the act of creating a level playing field for society’s most vulnerable individuals.
This very much rings true. I need to think about whether this gives me any additional insight about why liberals act they way they act. At first blush, I think it is something that thoughtful people, maybe even some liberals, have intuitively known all along.
Betty Blonde #302 – 09/14/2009
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Natalie
Interesting. Why do liberals only care about the first two so much? Because life isn’t fair and I think people need to learn that. I’m not saying racism or sexism doesn’t exist but, sometimes life you just isn’t fair. Sometimes you might make less money, not get the job, get bad grades for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with you gender, race, sexuality, etc. It is just because that is the way life works sometimes. Also, no matter how hard you try you will get hurt in this life. Try meeting someone who has never struggled, been hurt or treated unfairly. I don’t get how liberals (and politicians in general) fight so hard for what is inevitable and not the real issues.
That is very well stated Natalie. One my dad’s saying favorite sayings when we were growing up was “who said anything about ‘fair’–live is not fair.” I really liked the article because it explains why conservatives (of course this is just my opinion) are generally just a little more thoughtful than liberals on most social and economic issues. Of course I think that is not universal, just prevalent.