Researchers show that liberals and conservatives approach everyday decisions differently.(latimes.com)
latimes.com
Researchers show that liberals and conservatives approach everyday decisions differently.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story
4 comments
Of course they haven't. However, considering the letter they chose, I wonder if the whole thing is a put-on...
[notices that every other comment attached to this link just got -1'd]
And here I was hoping that drive-by downmodding was confined to reddit.
If you don't like the story, fine. But don't take it out on the people who... as it happens, also thought the story was worthless, but found that worthlessness worth mentioning.
And here I was hoping that drive-by downmodding was confined to reddit.
If you don't like the story, fine. But don't take it out on the people who... as it happens, also thought the story was worthless, but found that worthlessness worth mentioning.
You're correct. One user downmodded every comment on this thread. Maybe I'll add protections against that. In the meantime I upmodded them all myself.
Thanks; it's appreciated. And yes, I think protection against that kind of thing would be useful (but it's sad that it's necessary even here).
I thought this is politics without even reading the article and was so angry I downmodded all 3 or 4 comments that were here. Sorry about that. I just don't want HN to be another reddit.
It may have been posted as a political link, but the methodology was so flawed that it became interesting anyway. :)
As for my interest: I quit a psych degree after a year because the teaching of experimental psychology convinced me that it isn't a serious science. Experiments like this are sadly not uncommon - experimenters decide what they want to quantify, but then measure whatever they can, no matter how tenuous the link between the two.
As for my interest: I quit a psych degree after a year because the teaching of experimental psychology convinced me that it isn't a serious science. Experiments like this are sadly not uncommon - experimenters decide what they want to quantify, but then measure whatever they can, no matter how tenuous the link between the two.
I upmodded you, mojuba. Divided America is stupid - it is tragic.
One of my professors had an interesting comment:
Somewhat unfortunately slanted article, I'm afraid. It makes it sound like conservatives are broken. In fact, one could just as easily have constructed the task so that the extra deliberation made by liberals caused them to perform worse (by changing how errors and time are used in the final score).
I think the argument has got to be that there are multiple strategies for dealing with uncertainty in the world and the correct one depends on the world as much as anything else. I believe that we are in a world that favors Kerry's style of decision making over Bush's. But, that's a claim about the world, not a value judgment about Kerry, per se.
Somewhat unfortunately slanted article, I'm afraid. It makes it sound like conservatives are broken. In fact, one could just as easily have constructed the task so that the extra deliberation made by liberals caused them to perform worse (by changing how errors and time are used in the final score).
I think the argument has got to be that there are multiple strategies for dealing with uncertainty in the world and the correct one depends on the world as much as anything else. I believe that we are in a world that favors Kerry's style of decision making over Bush's. But, that's a claim about the world, not a value judgment about Kerry, per se.
The fact that the sample group was composed entirely of college students means that extrapolating "Kerry-style" vs. "Bush-style" doesn't even rate as "tenuous." Politics on a college campus tend to be a lot different from everywhere else.
What about libertarians (of either pole)?
I could not resist, even though I know I should. This is one conservative who changed his mind.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY&feature=bz100
"Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W"
to
"Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas."
!
As the article notes, political orientation is correlated with a lot of things: income, education, religion, race/ethnicity, etc. Even if they tried to control for any possible confounding variables (the article doesn't mention whether they did), I'm very skeptical that they've successfully isolated a causal relationship between liberalism/conservatism and some innate brain capacity that makes you good at pressing a button at the right time.