Study Shows How Liberals and Conservatives Think Differently

There are quite a few stereotypes involving liberals and conservatives, but one that seems to be pervasive is that the former lack cohesion and the latter cooperate quite easily. A report in Psychological Science, the Association for Psychological Science's professional journal, sheds some light on why that stereotype is so often cited: Both groups have very different ways of thinking about themselves and their groups.

Okay, we admit that a study showing lefties and righties thinking differently isn't groundbreaking, but hear us out. Three New York University researchers — Chadly Stern, Tessa West and Peter Schmitt — wanted to find out why liberals and conservatives act so differently. By the end of their research, they found evidence that "liberals tend to underestimate the amount of actual agreement among those who share their ideology, while conservatives tend to overestimate intra-group agreement." In other words, liberals believe they're more unique than they are, and thus believe that their side of the aisle is more divided, while conservatives believe they're more unified and think more people side with them, but it seems that both political factions are wrong.

For their study, the trio asked 300 hundred people to fill out an online survey, filled with political statements, like "In general, I support labor unions" and non-political statements, like "I enjoy coffee." The participants were then asked to mark if they agreed or disagreed with each statement. Along with that, the people were asked to rate how much their subgroup (liberals or conservatives) would agree with their answers.

Those that identified as liberals displayed what Stern, West and Schmitt called "truly false uniqueness." Essentially, they thought that their answers would be much different than the answers of other liberals. Meanwhile, conservatives displayed the opposite — "truly false consensus." They thought that their answers would be almost identical to the answers of other conservatives.

The research teams claim that their findings explain why the Occupy Wall Street movement seemed so fractured, while the Tea Party movement seemed so focused. "Liberal social movements might struggle to develop solidarity and formulate shared goals within their ranks, both because liberals want to maintain unique beliefs and because they underestimate the amount of agreement among their members," Stern is quoted explaining in a press release announcing the findings. "Conservative social movements might initially capitalize on perceiving agreement to galvanize their ranks, but their inaccurate perceptions could impair group progress when actual agreement is necessary."

This study follows other stereotypes and research. Liberals have been shown to favor creativity and uniqueness, while conservatives have been shown to value order and obedience. Which method is better? Well, we imagine your answer would have something to do with which way you lean. Perhaps the best answer is to simply say that both sides are right. That way the fighting can continue. What's politics without some good old fashioned arguing?

[Image via Flickr - Robert Couse-Baker]