Reply #45: Conservatives are more angry and afraid, even in their dreams... [View All]

[Helga Scow Stern]

posted by jaysunb:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x87651

<snip>
In keeping with the idea that conservatives see the world as threatening, Altemeyer reported a study that found a strong, positive correlation between the perception of a dangerous world and high scores on the Right Wing Authoritarian Scale with a sample of Canadian college students. Other researchers replicated this finding with several samples in South Africa and New Zealand where they also noted a significant correlation between the perception of a dangerous world and scores on a Social Dominance Scale. Authoritarians in these studies generally saw the world as a dangerous place while liberals did not share this pessimistic perception.

In an ingenuous research program on the dream lives of liberals and conservatives in the US, the investigator found that Republicans reported three times as many nightmares as did Democrats. This finding suggests that fear, danger, threat, and aggression percolates more prominently through the unconscious life of conservatives than liberals.

To the extent that conservatives are especially sensitive and attuned to threat or possibility of loss, one reason they attempt to maintain the statue quo, it follows that they should also be more highly motivated by negatively framed outcomes or potential losses than by positively framed outcomes or potential gains.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/114/114_white_supremacy.html