Men who are physically strong are more likely to have right wing political views. WOW.

[HughBeaumont]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2325414/Men-physically-strong-likely-right-wing-political-views.html

The Daily Fail is officially a parody website.

Men who are physically strong are more likely to take a right wing political stance, while weaker men are inclined to support the welfare state, according to a new study.

Researchers discovered political motivations may have evolutionary links to physical strength.

Men's upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution, according to the research.

(snip)

Professor Petersen said: ‘Our results demonstrate that physically weak males are more reluctant than physically strong males to assert their self-interest - just as if disputes over national policies were a matter of direct physical confrontation among small numbers of individuals, rather than abstract electoral dynamics among millions.’

However, the researchers found no link between upper-body strength and redistribution opinions among women.

[JaneyVee]

1. BULLSHIT.

[Dash87]

2. +1 complete crap

[sakabatou]

7. +2

[Mr Dixon]

52. Agreed

[Donald Ian Rankin]

57. Tell me, what do you think the flaw in their methodology is?

Or is it just that you don't like the conclusion?

[demosincebirth]

80. +100

[Arcanetrance]

3. As a physically strong male who is as far away from conservative as possible I say bullshit

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Lessee now-- they did the research, which may or may not...

be bullshit, but the responses here, from those who did no research at all, and likely didn't even read the article, assume this is bullshit.

We know where the authors of the paper got their numbers, but where do the naysayers get theirs? Or are we to believe in psychic revelations now...

[Buzz Clik]

20. ..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022852708#post18

[reformist2]

5. I believe it. But who cares? The real purpose is to intimidate people, and that's what matters.

[Zoeisright]

6. Too much testosterone.

Not surprising.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Brawn vs Brains?

[HughBeaumont]

17. I guess it depends on how one defines strength . . .

How strong can a person be when they . . .

* worship authoritarians,
* trust corporations,
* identify with oppressors rather than the oppressed,
* think it’s a basic human need to be led,
* refute science and history to believe stories,
* bully people who won’t fight back and conduct "wars" on concepts and rhetoric,
* push toxic narratives and call it “news”,
* are jealous of, mad at and lay blame at the "have nots",
* think life is one big competition that can be won by violence,
* live their life as a bitter, paranoid coward who thinks everyone and everything is out to get them.

Yep, that's what I define as a "HE-MAN"!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. Yep. Unfortunately, a lot of people confuse "representative" with "strong leader".

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Hmm....I consider myself to be pretty strong

I workout quite a bit. I can lift a lot in the gym, but I'm liberal.

[MineralMan]

10. More Moronicism from the DailyMail.

Oops! I think I just coined a new word. My apologies.

[HughBeaumont]

59. The Daily Fail is the New Moronomicon.

[MineralMan]

60. Apparently, it is the Official Organ of The Worldwide Moronic Party:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022852883

I'm not saying which organ, though.

[Puzzledtraveller]

11. My legs are well developed, naturally and from running

My upper body is average and I do not work on it except core work. Maybe that's why I am more of a liberaltarian?

[Duer 157099]

12. I can see this possibly being so, in general

And I can see many reasons why it might be.

1) influence of military?
2) influence of other organized "manly" activities? (sports, etc)
3) most importantly, I think I read recently that the brains of conservatives differ in the amygdala, the portion of the brain that controls FEAR; more fear=more likely to want to become physically strong to ward off threats.

Maybe.

[NCTraveler]

13. Might be some truth to it....

Might not. I think reasoned arguments can be made to back up that claim. Regardless, we have our own FLvegan, where intelligence and muscle come together.

[Aerows]

14. Folks that have a tendency to be right wing and conservative

do have a tendency to regard themselves as tough, fearless and righteous!!!!

Now we all know that isn't true, anymore than claiming there is a correlation between religious belief and righteousness.

But someone is going to publish a study like that to stir the public opinion pot.

It amounts to a flawed attempt to equivocate causation with correlation. Nothing more.

[HughBeaumont]

24. It's almost as stupid as saying "People with Bad Teeth Tend to Be Jungian".

[Aerows]

32. "We regret to inform you that the fish wrapped in this article

goes bad more quickly than in other papers." LOL

[stevenleser]

54. If it were only the paper. Somehow this tripe ended up in a peer reviewed periodical.

Shameful really.

[HughBeaumont]

58. . . . and you definitely might not want to have your chips come in contact"

[Aerows]

64. Okay

That was hilarious

[Quantess]

15. dailymail.co.uk is birdcage liner.

Worthless article.

[Aerows]

23. Self-respecting parrots

probably refused to shit on this article.

[olddots]

16. the source is weak

[HughBeaumont]

22. At least OUR shite media is SUBTLE in regards to their toxic narratives . . . for the most part.

This just reads like an evil Onion until you realize they're actually serious.

[Buzz Clik]

18. I just looked up the article. Care to guess the strength of the correlation?

Here we go:

Does upper-body strength influence support for economic redistribution in men? Yes. As predicted, for men
of high SES, the correlation between strength and support for redistribution was negative, whereas for men of low SES, the correlation was positive (see Fig. 1). In other words, strong men of high SES opposed redistribution, whereas strong men of low SES favored redistribution. Using ordinary-least-squares regression, we regressed subjects’ support for redistribution on their SES, upper-body strength, and the interaction of these two factors for males and females separately. For males, there was a highly significant interaction effect in all three countries—Argentina: F(1, 98) = 7.83, p = .003, r² = .082; United States: F(1, 201) = 6.22, p = .007, r² = .032; Denmark: F(1, 414) = 9.70, p = .001, r² = .124 (one-tailed ps).

If you are unfamiliar with statistics, the r² tells you what fraction of the variability between bicep measurement and support for redistribution can be accounted for by drawing a straight line through the data. With r² varying from 0.003 to 0.12, the answer is very, very little. The correlation is significant because they had a lot of data, but the strength of the correlation is quite poor.

Worth noting: the average of the males in the study: Argentina: 21, US: 19, Denmark: 48. Not exactly comparable data sets.

Nevermind.

[stevenleser]

39. Interesting. Good research and thanks for that. A weak correlation along with the old axiom

"Correlation does not equal causation".

It could be that people who are against a social safety net tend to be narcissistic sociopaths who have a higher tendency to work out their upper bodies in order to intimidate other people.

And obviously I am not saying that is so of all people who work out their upper bodies. I spend a lot of time in the gym and playing sports myself.

[Buzz Clik]

48. ... and in this case, they don't have much of a correlation.

[lumberjack_jeff]

46. The other big problem is the big logical fail inherent in their proposed explanation.

Conservatives, and those opposed to "redistribution" are acting against their own self-interests, while being too stupid to grasp the math.

[AndyA]

19. Who knew? All these years, I'd thought that males with right wing political views

Had small little brains. Guess the physical strength offsets the limited mental capacity.

Wasn't it Farrah Fawcett who said you either have great hair and bad teeth or great teeth and bad hair, but not both?

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. Kiss my ass. No really, take it from the grandson of a Molly Maguire. Kiss my ass.

Not you, Hugh, but starting with Emma, the author of this article.

[NoGOPZone]

25. Two words. Paul Robeson. nt

[KamaAina]

62. Two more. Charles Krauthammer.

[Dawson Leery]

26. How does this theory explain Dick Morris?

[MADem]

31. He has the strongest toes in the land....?? nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

42. I regurgitated Big Red reading that.

[MADem]

49. Heh, heh...! Sorry bout that! nt

[Jamaal510]

83. No, Dick Morris has the strongest TONGUE in the land.

[MADem]

85. Well, he was stinking up the room with that rMoney LANDSLIDE crap!

Was that his breath...

Or his feet?

[HughBeaumont]

33. Or Karl Rove?

I'd like to see THAT bridge built.

[MADem]

28. Do they factor in STEROIDS?

I guess they make more than the gonads shrink....?

[clarice]

29. I like 'em big and dumb. nt

[Aerows]

47. I know a guy

he drives a truck
He can't tell time
But he sure can
Drive...

I like em' big and stupid.

[clarice]

53. Aerows. lol. Congrats, you got the inference. nt

[HappyMe]

30. I think it's a load of crap.

[Andy823]

34. They must mean

Guys like Rush, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, Newt, etc. The leaders of the right wing loons!

[graham4anything]

35. Rand and Ron Paul and David Duke are not physically strong. Neither was Jorg Haider.

so one doesn't have to be physically strong to be however,
just carry a gun and bullet and Zimmy from Florida all of a sudden became Amon from Germany

[Puzzledtraveller]

40. Good examples

[Politicalboi]

36. Their study consisted of

Walking past gyms, and seeing Faux news on their TV's.

[Aerows]

44. Or deciding that the

urine produced by cats of conservatives stinks less than by that of liberals.

I mean, come on, the conservative on my street has a better garden than a liberal I know, so that means he's better, right? His opinion, his virility, everything? If he does something better than a liberal, that means that liberals suck.

[H2O Man]

37. Silly.

What a steaming pile of nonsense.

[Downtown Hound]

38. LOL. Whatever. I'm a former Golden Gloves boxer

who could bench press 350 pounds during my peak. I can still do 250 and I'm 36 years old, although not quite as trim as I used to be. LOL.

If there's any truth to this article at all, and that's a big if, then my guess it's because strong young men are encouraged to find avenues that allow them to use their strength such as football. They're taught that if they can beat the shit out of the other team, all the girls will want them and they'll be heroes. And the thing is, a lot of the time, they're right. Much of their adolescent development then centers around physical prowess and aggression instead of things like art, reading, and philosophy.

By the time they're older, they tend to maintain this kind of world view even though they no longer have an official outlet for it, one of competition and gain by force, instead of cooperation and rule by consensus, and this works it's way into their political beliefs.

Or, maybe the article is just bullshit.

[Marr]

41. Right Wing Outlet Discovers Conservatives are Better Looking

lol, what a joke.

[Aerows]

45. Exactly

RW outlet discovers that conservatives are desired more by everyone, news at 11.

[Enrique]

43. they included all the great ape family in their study

chimps are extremely strong, and have very conservative attitudes.

[Matariki]

50. The Daily Mail is the UK's "National Enquirer"

I'm always baffled that folks here don't understand that. Especially when I see people posting links to their stories in earnest.

[HughBeaumont]

55. It wasn't really in earnest.

I pretty much realize the Fail and the TeleGraft are sham propaganda arms.

Even taking that into account, this one was just too good to pass up . . .

[Matariki]

67. Oh I know!

I didn't mean your OP. It's funny.

[Octafish]

51. Mr. Apollo

[byeya]

72. Yes I too am now two separate gorillas - Thanks for it all Viv!!

[Octafish]

73. Look over walls and tease people.

You do look fit, Rod! And your voice.

[grasswire]

56. then why do RW-ers say they must have guns for protection? nt

[Hoyt]

61. My experience is that bullies/intimidators are often right wingers.

[arcane1]

63. So if I start working out, I may become a teabagger??

One more reason to avoid the gym.

[smirkymonkey]

69. LOL!

I hate gym rats. I know some people like to stay in shape, but vanity is a bigger turn off to me than a few extra pounds. I like to see a man with a body that enjoys life a little bit.

[Earth_First]

65. Ummm, Tea Party?! HELLO?!

Many of these 'prime specimen' of peak athletic ability couldn't run a half mile without a defibulator immediately available...

[HughBeaumont]

66. I wonder if that earpiece leading to nowhere is really a defibulator . . .

ETA: Rand called them his "private security detail".

[Buzz Clik]

68. Original article: The highest degree of correlation in this test was 0.12

That means you can predict a man's view on redistribution of wealth based in the size of his biceps with an accuracy of 12%. That was the very BEST.

Graphically, that level of correlation looks like this:



Keep in mind, that was the BEST case. In other words -- shotgun blast.

[BainsBane]

86. I can do better than that by guessing

a coin flip is 50%.

[panader0]

70. Bull--I've been a bricklayer all my life

I poured and finished 8 yards of concrete just this morning.
I'm 62 and I've been strong and liberal all of my life.

[Shankapotomus]

71. I'll take brains over brawn any day

It's our brains that will lure the Republican Party over a cliff.

[Uzair]

74. You mean jocks are generally not the sharpest knives in the drawer?

Color me shocked.

[flvegan]

75. Some of the responses are almost as funny as the premise in question. n/t

[House of Roberts]

76. I make my living as a machinist,

and have worked as an auto repair tech. My wife was first attracted to me because of my arms and shoulders.

Most of the right wingers I know are insecure in their masculinity and tend to overcompensate with deliberate anti-empathy.

[Zorra]

77. Interesting. Scientists are almost universally positive that neanderthals had massive upper body

strength.

I wonder if there is a correlation?

[Android3.14]

78. Either this is a pile of horseshit or

Fat armed republican men overestimate their upper body strength.

[Rex]

79. Nothing funnier than when a trash rag let's you into their psyche.

They DREAM of Hitler's perfect Army! HOW AMUSING!

[brooklynite]

81. This could be effect rather than cause...

Maybe RWers are building up their strength to fight the UN troops when they land in their black helicopters.

[Jamaal510]

84. The only RWer I can think of who is physically-fit

is Tim Tebow. Maybe add Paul Ryan in there, too. Everyone else I've seen is either bony and sickly-looking, or chubby.