I questioned that a population can be categorized in only two sets. It's unfortunate that a lot of people buy into this, and end up trying to be as faithful to one of the label as they can, just like a fan will dedicate himself/herself to a specific sport team for no good reason really than just picking a side and sticking to it.
This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
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Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#12That picture at the top is horrifying. Looks like she is undergoing the Ludovico technique http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjAxODIxMDQwNl5BMl5Ban...
How could they do that to Ludwig Van!?
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#13More generally, it seems the more we look into the seemingly-simple emotion of disgust, the more complicated it gets. While I hate to just drop a Wikipedia page in a comment link, it seems to be a pretty good starting point on the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgust It's fascinating stuff.
The other nice thing about this article is that it seems to refrain from judgments, which is a problem this general field has had. First, study scientifically. Then, if necessary, judge unscientifically as needed. (No sarcasm. A judgment here is necessarily by definition unscientific, but that doesn't make it wrong... just unscientific, and don't forget it. Unscientific is not a synonym of "wrong" any more than scientific is a synonym of "correct".) However I think that when you study the differences carefully, and with an open mind, it becomes much more difficult to say that one side is right and one side is wrong on the question of "the proper level of disgust". Disgust is a blunt instrument, like any other emotional reaction, and turning something so broad and vague "up" or "down" inevitably results in errors either way. This is especially true when you remember that not all humans live in the same situations... for a middle-class American living in a safe neighborhood, excessive paranoia about out-groups is probably unreasonable, but for someone living in a tribal area, insufficient paranoia about out-groups may very well get you killed.
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#14Left/right or liberal/conservative are false dichotomies, at least in U.S. politics. Both major parties are willing to use coercion to achieve their goals, and they don't even differ very much in what those goals are. The real divide is between authoritarians and anti-authoritarians. It would be interesting to see a similar study (or the results of this study re-analyzed) with liberal/conservative replaced with autho…
Couldn't agree more. The classic 'false dilemma'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#15But what if I take the results this machine gives, and then immediately start supporting candidates at the opposite end of the spectrum?
Um... Then you'll vote for a party you don't agree with. Your point was?
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#16Left/right or liberal/conservative are false dichotomies, at least in U.S. politics. Both major parties are willing to use coercion to achieve their goals, and they don't even differ very much in what those goals are. The real divide is between authoritarians and anti-authoritarians. It would be interesting to see a similar study (or the results of this study re-analyzed) with liberal/conservative replaced with autho…
Couldn't agree more. The classic 'false dilemma'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
Right. Like abortion. Or death penalty. Or gun ownership. Or taxes. All false dilemmas, right? Both Democrats and Republicans want (obviously!) the same policies for the problems pointed above. Or not really?
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#17I always thought it was pretty easy to tell being human.... One's an asshole, and one's not! zing
Update after downvotes: apparently no one reading this has a sense of humor, liberal or conservative.
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#18The Last Psychiatrist wrote some interesting commentary about the Science paper that this article mentions. "[T]he actual finding isn't that conservatives are fearful; it's that liberals seem not to exhibit much response to scary photos. But it's actually a little worse than that."
(http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/either_conservatives_...)
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#19Some other features that can help classify a liberal: Weaker upper and lower body strength. Weaker immune system, lower T-cell counts. Weaker ability to detect odors and tastes like burning smoke and acrid compounds.
Sounds interesting - but please, provide sources for such bold statements or expect to get downvoted.
Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
#20Left/right or liberal/conservative are false dichotomies, at least in U.S. politics. Both major parties are willing to use coercion to achieve their goals, and they don't even differ very much in what those goals are. The real divide is between authoritarians and anti-authoritarians. It would be interesting to see a similar study (or the results of this study re-analyzed) with liberal/conservative replaced with autho…
No, the real divide is not between libertarians and "statists". You are simply projecting a complicated, multidimensional space down onto a single axis and then twisting it to make your ideology sound right-by-default.
For one thing, property is theft ;-).