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Conservatives Understand Liberals. Liberals Don’t Understand Conservatives.
As a conservative living in San Francisco, I often struggle with a sense of alienation because while I know and understand the liberal mindset of my neighbors, acquaintances and friends, I don’t perceive them to understand how I think or to care why I hold the beliefs I do. I often encounter gross stereotypes of conservatives — we’re xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, judgmental racist bigots who want the rich to get richer and the sick and poor to go ahead and die already to reduce the surplus population. And that’s not even taking our foreign policy positions into consideration! That one could actually believe all those ugly things about a fellow American who votes for someone like John McCain instead of Barack Obama is mind boggling.
It turns out my perception of how liberals view conservatives isn’t too far off the mark. In his NYT op-ed today, Nicholas Kristof writes that conservatives seem to understand liberals far better than liberals understand conservatives.
One academic study asked 2,000 Americans to fill out questionnaires about moral questions. In some cases, they were asked to fill them out as they thought a “typical liberal” or a “typical conservative” would respond.
Moderates and conservatives were adept at guessing how liberals would answer questions. Liberals, especially those who described themselves as “very liberal,” were least able to put themselves in the minds of their adversaries and guess how conservatives would answer.
The 2009 UVA study linked above explains its findings by positing that liberals form their basis of morality by considering three values: caring for the weak, fairness, and liberty. Conservatives, on the other hand, have a much more complex system of morality. In addition to caring about all of the things liberals do—while of course understanding fairness and liberty in very different ways—conservatives factor in loyalty, respect for authority, and sanctity into their conception of morality. It’s these added dimensions that seem to baffle the Left. From the study:
Liberals see conservatives as being motivated by an opposition to liberals’ core values of compassion and fairness, as well as being motivated by their own (non-moral) values of ingroup loyalty, respect for authorities and traditions, and spiritual purity. For instance,when conservatives express binding-foundation moral concerns about gay marriage—e.g., that it subverts traditional gender roles and family structures—liberals may have difficulty perceiving any moral value in such traditional arrangements and therefore conclude that conservatives are motivated by simple homophobia, untempered by concerns about fairness, equality, and rights.
This misperception is asymmetrical: conservatives did underestimate liberal moral concerns with the binding foundations, but they were no more likely to underestimate than liberals themselves.
Fascinating findings. But what are we to do with this information?
Published in General
Tom: My one-on-one experiences with liberals has been much the same. They are generally surprised to find that a conservative can put together a cogent sentence, let alone express views calmly and kindly. And they almost never have any sort of principled support for their own thinking. It’s mostly about how they “feel.”
I’ve also found Bay Area liberals so firewalled in their consideration of other viewpoints that they’re unable to distinguish “Republicans” from “Conservatives”. That’s usually the first correction I have to make when I come out of the closet as a “friend of Ronnie.” The other contrast is that we can recite their arguments back to them before we trump them with our own, without mentally short-circuiting. Ask them to do the same and they’re generally unable to get the words of their mouths – it’s so much easier just to caricature and call names.
Oh forget the logic and reasoning, just mug them. They learn quicker that way.
The reaction was flat disbelief. They needed to examine the study methodology. Surely the conclusions were more nuanced than that. It would certainly depend on who was polled. It might be true in general, but it didn’t apply to them personally, because of who their friends were, or because they had lived in the South, etc. Not one taker.
Anyone surprised? ·3 hours ago
Nope, not surprised. You’re pretty gutsy, Lucy.
Agreed. Liberals are guilty of everything they accuse conservatives of being.
I’ll claim it’s “Strategic Projection”.
Yes and no. Politicians and many pundits do it strategically. But everyday liberals (voters) do it because they are lemmings or because, as Daniel says, they never grew out of the teenage mentality that always assumes other people are at fault.
Interesting article. But I don’t buy that conservatives are conservatives largely because we’re more prone to feeling squeamishness and disgust than liberals, a claim he seems to be making:
In my experience, liberals are squeamish about plenty of things, just different things. If you’ve ever seen the squeamishness of a vegetarian realizing a meal might be contaminated with a minuscule amount of meat, or of an environmentalist with an empty soda can and no recycling bin handy…
Personally, eating worms doesn’t disgust me, though I prefer mine cooked and well-seasoned. My left-leaning sister, however, even gets squeamish over eating duck and rabbit, despite being a meat-eater generally. (Maybe it’s the cute factor, though that wouldn’t explain her squeamishness over organ meats.)
Wow. Liberals, they show, cannot fathom the conservative mindset.
Then these liberals proceed to explain the conservative mindset.
And get it wrong.
This has got to be a showcase for utter lack of self-awareness.
Or something.
I agree that this seems implausible to me. I gather, however, that there are data to support this assertion. It may be of interest to search around on the web for the original research, rather than taking the word of a NYT columnist, even if some of his points seem to be consonant with our observations.
I agree that this seems implausible to me. I gather, however, that there are data to support this assertion. It may be of interest to search around on the web for the original research, rather than taking the word of a NYT columnist, even if some of his points seem to be consonant with our observations.
Agreed!
…pay for their birth control so that they “unbreed” themselves out of existence?
Agreed. Liberals are guilty of everything they accuse conservatives of being. ·8 hours ago
I’ll claim it’s “Strategic Projection”.
Ie., intentional. And a remarkably effective offensive strategy.
If your side has some horrible fault, and the other side doesn’t, all you need to do is accuse the other side of that very fault. You provide the news media with the examples that normally wouldn’t be notable, but in light of this new context they get interpreted as transgressions, and you win. How amazing is that, turning a detriment into an advantage?
Ah yes…the eternal Adorno inspired “respect for authority” factor. One can be plenty conservative and have very little respect for authority — let alone have an Authoritarian Mind — after all what is the intent of limited government other than a desire to limit authority?
The findings on who understands who is interesting, the moral construct less so.
Here’s been my experience, having been both liberal and conservative:
Conservatives think rank and file liberals are wrong, naive, bad at economics, rather soft and clueless.
Liberals think rank and file conservatives are religious wingnuts, violent. They suspect their main hobbies involve white sheets and stonings. Oh, and there aren’t any intelligent conservative women; they’re all oppressed, if they exist at all.
Conservatives think liberals are wrong. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
As to what to do with it, I don’t know. I can’t even read the Facebook updates of my former classmates because the sheer vitriol for me and mine is staggering. I didn’t want to lose my liberal friends, but I’m not sure I have a choice.
This is why I am increasingly pessimistic about our ability to remain one country. Not only does the ruling class of the Left fail to understand a vast swath of their fellow countrymen, but they dismiss their beliefs into mental illnesses (We don’t have principles, we have phobias.)
If you read the comments under Kristoff’s column, most liberals latched on to the phrase “respect for authority” and translated that into a love of authoritarianism. It is a classic projection, of course, since no one loves the imprint of government authority more than they do.
Diane asks, “But what are we to do with this information?” Nothing. Since it is already being perverted for political gain the information becomes worthless.
The findings on who understands who is interesting, the moral construct less so. ·6 minutes ago
My instinct was to see “respect for authority” listed and gag at the choice of words, but the description of this dimension used in the study (and in a new book by Jonathan Haidt, one of the study’s authors) includes things like a reverence toward God and a respect for the military and traditional institutions such as the family and the church. One needn’t be an authoritarian to respect and value authorities bigger than one’s self.
Try explaining Marx or feminism to the wrong kind of conservative and you can swiftly find exceptions to this rule. Tolerance and intolerance are found in most parts of the political spectrum. I had a comment replying to a comment of mine suggesting that Immelt should not be treated well because Obama is evil, for instance.
Also, objectively, the baby killing scum are evil, while our attempts to encourage people to work by cutting off welfare are born out of love and respect. ;-)
What concerns me is the way the left delegitimizes the conservative worldview. We don’t think food stamps are a bad use of public resources–we secretly hate black people and broadcast that to insiders by talking about SNAP. We don’t think the traditional family is actually a good thing–we hate women and want them barefoot and pregnant. Etc.
Hence the left comes up with ideas like dog-whistle politics which, while probably true to a small degree, are not a vast right wing conspiracy to say one thing while meaning another.
I’ll have to look at the study to see how their use of authority varies from Adorno’s use in The Authoritarian Personality.
That aside, I think one of the main differences between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives grew up reading, watching, and listening to liberal ideas. Liberals wouldn’t know where to look to read in depth discussion of conservative ideas.
I provide reading lists to some of the students I work with — those that want to look into the origins of political philosophies — and some of the students are shocked at the depth of writing on/by conservatives.
I’ve also found that it is more likely that conservatives have read Rawls, Rorty, and Croly than liberals. Peter Beinart and I, while he was writing his book “The Good Fight,” had a discussion of the how little liberals know about their own philosophic traditions.
It is rare indeed the liberal who has read Witness, or Burke, or Kirk.
I currently live in Austin, TX. It’s not as far to the left as SF, but there aren’t many conservatives or conservative outlets. I know from where you speak. I have few friends/acquaintances who can speak of politics without getting emotional. That’s the biggest problem to get passed. Once we get to a one-on-one, it’s easier.
“Have you talked to a someone who is conservative, or do you get their mindset from what liberals say?” You’ll either get a questioning look, change in subject, or ignored. If you know they’re not as socialist as Bernie Sanders, they can understand you’re not (insert name here).
Ask someone to describe what they believe, not what they think others believe. Then do the same. There’s more common ground than most on the left think, we just have different ideas to get there. I like to ask questions, and review the consequences state run/mandated X has had on the larger market, society, etc. There’s also a little ADD involved (I just found out), so I remember and recall everything. Makes it easy.
In conversations with liberal friends I’ve found the best way to use this information is to contrast their attitudes with yours. In other words, you have to go down to the level of first principles and point out that their assumptions are different than yours. It’s like value debate from high school.
But, really, I think it’s more difficult on a wider level because liberals substitute politics for religion. So where many conservatives have this hallowed space of moral ideas that are not necessarily political but from which political ideas derive, many liberals stick the politics right in that place in substitute for morality. So it’s literally immoral to be a conservative, by their way of thinking.
–Joy
One thing I found heartening in the Kristof piece is learning that the co-author of the study, Jonathan Haidt, who has just published The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Religion and Politics (WSJ review here) was very liberal when he set out doing his research, but now describes himself as a centrist. That’s at least one piece of anecdotal evidence that the more someone learns about what conservatives really believe and why they believe it, the more they’re pulled in that direction themselves.
I would LOVE to see your list-!
Yes, yes, yes.
I’ll claim it’s “Strategic Projection”.
Yes and no. Politicians and many pundits do it strategically. But everyday liberals (voters) do it because they are lemmings or because, as Daniel says, they never grew out of the teenage mentality that always assumes other people are at fault. ·15 hours ago
Indeed, there is a difference between the lefty operatives and regular liberal voters, and it is significant. The lefty operatives incorporate Strategic Projection as they define the narrative, and regular liberal voters tend to follow the narrative.
Still, it’s a very powerful and efficient mechanism.
And conservatives, unfortunately, have nothing close.
I’ll claim it’s “Strategic Projection”.
Yes and no. Politicians and many pundits do it strategically. But everyday liberals (voters) do it because they are lemmings or because, as Daniel says, they never grew out of the teenage mentality that always assumes other people are at fault. ·15 hours ago
Indeed, there is a difference between the lefty operatives and regular liberal voters, and it is significant. The lefty operatives incorporate Strategic Projection as they define the narrative, and regular liberal voters tend to follow the narrative.
Still, it’s a very powerful and efficient mechanism.
And conservatives, unfortunately, have nothing close. ·Mar 24 at 12:09am
True. So very true.
The findings on who understands who is interesting, the moral construct less so. ·6 minutes ago
My instinct was to see “respect for authority” listed and gag at the choice of words, but the description of this dimension used in the study (and in a new book by Jonathan Haidt, one of the study’s authors) includes things like a reverence toward God and a respect for the military and traditional institutions such as the family and the church. One needn’t be an authoritarian to respect and value authorities bigger than one’s self. ·Mar 22 at 12:34pm
Conservatives tend to respect, but question authority. Liberals tend to appeal to authority, after which there are to be no questions.