“Values deeply embedded in biology”
That’s the subtitle to an article on recent psychological research I read last evening. And sure. Parents valuing their offspring, that’s definitely deeply embedded in our evolutionary biology. But the title tells how the research got personal -
Personality predicts political preferences
Wow. Though this is not the first bit of research that has discovered this type of connection, it is still big news. Important. As much as I’d like to tout my values as the best and most reasonable, I realize that more goes into these judgments than pure thought. In previous generations psychologists asserted that the nurture of our social environments influenced our political views. The family and culture and unique experiences an individual encountered shaped their political self. But darn, it seems that the nature of our largely inborn personality traits exerts a strong influence as well. How strong? Unfortunately, the article didn’t delve into that important matter. Here’s the nutmeat of what it did cover:
There is a strong relationship between a voter’s politics and his personality, according to new research from the University of Toronto.
Researchers at UofT have shown that the psychological concern for compassion and equality is associated with a liberal mindset, while the concern for order and respect of social norms is associated with a conservative mindset.
“Conservatives tend to be higher in a personality trait called orderliness and lower in openness. This means that they’re more concerned about a sense of order and tradition, expressing a deep psychological motive to preserve the current social structure,” says Jacob Hirsh, a post-doctoral psychology student at UofT and lead author of the study.
While there is nothing conclusive here, there is plenty to consider. Perhaps there is at least sufficient cause to question the notion that our own values are THE values, simply because they feel so right to us.
Being a skeptic — also something influenced by personality? (I bet) — I did encounter this line in the article that raised a red flag:
Hirsh’s work contributes to accumulating evidence suggesting political behaviour is motivated by underlying psychological needs.
Um, a personality trait is a personality trait, not a manifestation of some underlying psychological need. A person with an extroverted personality is a person with an extroverted personality, not someone needing to work out a hidden agenda. It seems the ghost of the great pseudoscientist, Sigmund Freud, lives on.
Still. An intriguing finding.
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Tags: behavior, personality, politics
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