Rigging a Study to Make Conservatives Look Stupid...
Slate has more analysis of the liberal brain/conservative brain study (Hat tip: Right Wing News):
The author makes some good points--read the whole thing.
The conservative case against this study is easy to make. Sure, we're fonder of old ways than you are. That's in our definition. Some of our people are obtuse; so are some of yours. If you studied the rest of us in real life, you'd find that while we second-guess the status quo less than you do, we second-guess putative reforms more than you do, so in terms of complexity, ambiguity, and critical thinking, it's probably a wash. Also, our standard of "information" is a bit tougher than the blips and fads you fall for. Sometimes, these inclinations lead us astray. But over the long run, they've served us and society pretty well. It's just that you notice all the times we were wrong and ignore all the times we were right.
In fact, that's exactly what you've done in this study: You've manufactured a tiny world of letters, half-seconds, and button-pushing, so you can catch us in clear errors and keep out the part of life where our tendencies correct yours. And now you feel great about yourselves. Congratulations. You haven't told us much about our way of thinking. But you've told us a lot about yours.
The author makes some good points--read the whole thing.
posted by Helen at 6:41 AM
15 Comments:
I found this interesting: If you studied the rest of us in real life, you'd find that while we second-guess the status quo less than you do, we second-guess putative reforms more than you do, so in terms of complexity, ambiguity, and critical thinking, it's probably a wash.
I for one am skeptical about change in many cases because I have seen too many times when change is made for change's sake, without adequately looking at the ramifications and unintended consequences. And that is the major problem with most liberal ideas - failure to consider unintended consequences.
Indeed, to be a bit snarky, I would suggest that the experiment illustrates part of the problem of liberals - they do best with binary decisions, while life is not black and white, but filled with a lot of grays.
Also, to continue the snark, the choice of "M" and "W" is interesting, esp. given the political overtones of the later with liberals. Could liberals react more strongly to the "W" key because of their knee jerk reaction to the president with that initial? Anyone remember all those "W" keys removed when the Clintonistas left the White House?
Bruce Hayden,
I thought the same thing when I saw the M and W used. I thought it was an odd choice to use, given the strong connotation of the W. Would the result be different if another letter or symbol was used? I don't know, but it is worth considering.
What we really have here is a hand-eye coordination task involving a computer screen and some buttons, with timing that prevents the use of conscious thought - in other words, it's a video game. Maybe we should heed Occam's advice and look for a simpler explanation just a teeny bit more related to the independent variables. Maybe liberals spend more time playing video games?
The study is simply a crock. I have two friends, a married couple, that are VERY liberal, and very smart too. Yet, despite the fact that their employment situation has changed (they aren't earning as much as they used to) they seem incapable of changing their spending habits, and are constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. Of course I can't tell them " look, just stop spending all that money on frivolous thing (yes, they do, demonstrably, they talk about their expenditures) and cut back" Because of course that would be rude.
But they won't/don't change, and they think they are better than I am because I vote and self identify as conservative. It's only an anecdote, I know. But I think a real study would find that liberals and conservatives are probably equally capable of being stuck in a rut, as it were.
But that would require real science without and agenda. I did like the article quoted here however.
Study, Shmudy.
Conservatives have higher incomes than leftists. While that may not make conservatives provably smarter, it certainly proves they are not dumber than their lower-income leftist rivals.
Many conservatives would take a meat cleaver to most of government and Hollywood. Does that make us radicals?
I have an rather high IQ. I'm also a conservative.
Does this study mean that my IQ gets shaved by thirty points? Just asking.
"a" not "an". Dang!
The Dilbert Blog has a post that I think you will like: "Study Hints That Brains are Involved in Thinking". I wonder if there is a way to take this online, because I think it would be interesting to see the results. It reminds me of the study a few years ago on whether you are a racist.
I don't need some biased study to gauge my own intelligence. Yes, I'm a conservative, and yes, I am stupid. If I were a liberal, I'd be a stupid liberal. My stupidity transcends the political, the philosophical, the metaphysical. My very DNA is stupid. AND I work for the State Department!
So put that in your pipes and smoke them, Mr. Scientists!
I may be stupid, but at least I use all of it.
Liberals have stupid they haven't used yet!
to Bruce Hayden
There were no letters removed from all the keyboards during the exit of the Clinton administration. There is a GAO report disproving this lie.
It's actually really insulting to a large number of career employees that have worked at the White House through many Presidents to continue perpetrating this false rumor. You should be ashamed.
In a different study recently it was found that conservatives were actually more to believe a falsehood that after they have been presented with proof of its falsehood than they were before the proof.
It bothers me to read what some of you have said about scientists. If you had ever been involved in designing and running scientific experiments and studies you would understand that none of them are trying to prove you are idiots. They set up these tests and questions with every intention of removing any effect they might have on the data they receive. From there it's a matter of interpretting the data. You make it out as if these people have a vendetta against you. They don't. They're trying to figure out why you would still believe things like Saddam Hussein having any involvement whatsoever with 9/11 or possessing weapons of mass destruction. You were being told by the premier experts on WMD in the world before we invaded that country that there were no WMD in Iraq, and it has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were none, there was no program to make them, and Iraq didn't have the technology or knowhow to make them. But you still believe it. Doesn't that bother you? Don't you feel maybe you should try to accept the truth even though it disagrees with your beliefs?
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