
UA Study Shows Stark Differences in How Conservatives, Liberals See Data - iamcreasy
http://uanews.ua.edu/2016/07/ua-study-shows-stark-differences-in-how-conservatives-liberals-see-data/
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frankquist
Link to abstract:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656616...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656616300666)

I was intrigued by the following paragraphs from the article:

> In three separate studies, Tullett and colleagues offered participants in
> both the Deep South and West Coast a chance to view data on three topics:
> the justness of the world, the efficacy of social safety nets and the
> benefits of social media.

and

> Tullett said she picked political issues that were relatively broad because
> people’s views on specific topics – like gay marriage or abortion – might be
> more idiosyncratic.

(note that I haven't been able to look at the data)

The researcher says she has picked political issues that are relatively broad.
But I actually do wonder if the subjects chosen are neutral enough. My
intuition said these issues are the issues a college educated person with a
cosmopolitan worldview would pick (saying that as someone with that
worldview). I think that the different values and priorities between
conservatives and republicans, and the different demographical makeups, might
skew the results. So a lot would depend on how different demographical factors
were controlled for.

Yourmorals.org has a load of research on different values between liberals and
conservatives [1]. Liberals seem to value fairness/reciprocity more, and in-
group/loyalty less [2]. Liberals are more likely to think a lack of equality
is wrong [1]. I'd think these differences might cause a difference in the
interest that respondents have in "the justness of the world" and "the
efficacy of social safety nets". It's not that they won't be interested, but I
can imagine the political priorities are different. Social Media benefits
seems to me something that interests younger people more, but I'd hope those
kinds of things were controlled for.

[1] See [http://www.polipsych.com/2010/10/27/differences-between-
whit...](http://www.polipsych.com/2010/10/27/differences-between-white-male-
liberals-and-white-male-conservatives/) for a portion of the yourmorals.org
research. [2] See [http://www.ethicsdefined.org/the-problem-with-
morality/conse...](http://www.ethicsdefined.org/the-problem-with-
morality/conservatives-vs-liberals/) for a graph on some different values,
taken from yourmorals.org

