On Jun 4, 5:12*pm, Curious Man wrote:
There seems to be a stereotype that "liberals" are the lazy sorts of
people who interrupt TV viewing only to go to soup lines, or smoke
harmful substances, whereas "conservatives" are hard working, self
reliant people who are very well off due to their own perseverance and
work ethic.

And yet, the few self proclaimed or suspected liberals and Obama
supporters of this newsgroup, seem to be very well off, accomplished
people, whereas many conservatives, while intelligent and interesting
people on many levels, are not exactly above that kind of level of
attainment.

If that is the case, is that perhaps the time to reconsider our
stereotypes?

Curious Man

FYI....

TMT

Conservatives Are More Easily Disgusted
Robert Roy Britt

LiveScience.com robert Roy Britt

People who squirm at the sight of bugs or are grossed out by blood and
guts are more likely to be politically conservative, new studies find.

In particular, the squeamish are more apt to have conservative
attitudes about gays and lesbians.

Lots of other research has tied politics to biology and behavior. Some
quick background:

* A study last year found that when people feel physically clean,
they are less judgmental.
* Another study found that political conservatives tend to be
tidy, with organized offices, but liberals favor colorful, more
stylish but cluttered spaces.
* Political views are driven by religion, culture and even
biology, other research has shown.
* A large, global study in 2007 concluded that political
preference is 50 percent genetic.

The new studies

In one of the new studies, Cornell University psychology professor
David Pizarro and colleagues surveyed 181 U.S. adults from politically
mixed swing states. They used a Disgust Sensitivity Scale (DSS), which
offers various scenarios to assess disgust sensitivity, as well as a
political ideology scale. They found a correlation between being more
easily disgusted and political conservatism.

Then they surveyed 91 Cornell undergraduates with the DSS, as well as
with questions about their positions on issues including gay marriage,
abortion, gun control, labor unions, tax cuts and affirmative action.
Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely
to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to
notions of morality or purity.

The results are detailed in the journal Cognition & Emotion.

In a separate study in the current issue of the journal Emotion,
Pizarro and colleagues found a link between higher disgust sensitivity
and disapproval of gays and lesbians. In this research, they used
implicit measures, which assess attitudes people may be unwilling to
report explicitly or that they may not even know they possess. The
studies were funded by the university.

Morals and disgust

Morals and disgust are intertwined. Research earlier this year found
that people react similarly to disgusting photographs by curling the
upper lip and wrinkling the nose. When judging behavior, our disgust
can actually make us feel physically sick.

Pizarro explains that disgust is evolution's way of protecting us from
disease. Unfortunately, in his view, disgust is now used to make moral
judgments.

Liberals and conservatives disagree about whether disgust has a valid
place in making moral judgments, Pizarro argues. Some conservatives
think there is inherent wisdom in repugnance, that feeling disgusted
about something - gay sex between consenting adults, for example - is
cause enough to judge it wrong or immoral, even lacking a concrete
reason, Pizarro explains. Liberals tend to disagree, and are more
likely to base judgments on whether an action or a thing causes actual
harm, he said.

Studying the link between disgust and moral judgment could help
explain the strong differences in people's moral opinions, Pizarro
figures. And it could offer strategies for persuading some to change
their views.

"People have pointed out for a long time that a lot of our moral
values seem driven by emotion, and in particular, disgust appears to
be one of those emotions that seems to be recruited for moral
judgments," Pizarro said.

An interesting related aside to chew on: Research published in 2007 in
the Journal of Applied Psychology found that people who think of
themselves as having high moral standards often become the worst
cheats because they pursue what they believe to be a moral end at all
cost.