People lean more economically conservative when angry

[Adelaide]

People tend to lean more economically conservative when they're angry, according to an article recently published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The two co-authors, University of Cincinnati assistant professor of marketing Anthony Salerno and University of Manitoba assistant professor Keri Kettle, came to the conclusion after running multiple studies that included more than 1,000 participants....

"We got people angry that way, and then we asked them, 'Oh by the way, we want to ask you a few basic personality questions,'" says Salerno. "We had things like age and gender, but along with those, we had a measure of people's economic views. We embedded that in with a longer list of questions, and people had no idea that their responses were being influenced by this previous writing task."

That influence caused a statistically significant rightward shift in the angry participants' economic views. The question of what makes people angry elicited a wide range of responses, including: ...



People become more economically conservative when angered - Science Daily (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170831113011.htm)

So this is kind of interesting. There are already a lot of theories floating around about things like DRD4 and liberalism, and the potential neurobiology of conservatives (for example, fMRI studies have shown conservatives tend to have more active amygdalas, which is the "fear and anxiety" center). A lot of those studies have not been successfully reproduced/recreated, so they're more or less not quite reputable. Which may also be the case for this article, but it is interesting to think of reasons someone may shift their opinion, either in the short-term or long-term, and whether the change would remain constant.

[Chris]

I have two problems with the study. One, they don't define economic conservatism well:


In the first of four studies, 538 undergraduate students were asked to score how prone they are to anger, how competitive they are and how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements like, "Laws of nature are responsible for differences in wealth in society," and "If people work hard, they almost always get what they want." The study showed positive relationships between anger proneness, economic conservatism and competitiveness, providing preliminary evidence that anger enhances support for economic conservatism by making people more competitive.

Two, while I can see how anger might make you more competitive at the moment:


"When you make people angry, you also make them more competitive," Salerno explains. "If you think about competition, it's about trying to win out over someone else, and it's usually over some type of valuable or desirable resource. By making people more competitive, we think that people become more focused on acquiring resources."

The economic conservative view, or at least the libertarian view is that economics is cooperative in exchange and trade. Businesses compete with each other for customers, not against customers. But, back to point two, these views are not ephemoral but based on long-held principles that rise above momentary anger.

[Peter1469]

I think they should look at whether someone is getting a paycheck or not. It is easy to love taxes when you aren't paying them. In fact, most women when they enter the work force if they have children to take care of turn fiscally conservative. Trump won because of women votes.

[Peter1469]

Interesting study. Yes, I get angry when someone takes 1/3rd of what I worked for.

Silly.

[Green Arrow]

It makes logical sense. We humans don't tend to think rationally when we are angry.

[Chris]

H. W. Brands, The Strange Death of American Liberalism, chronicles how Americans, typically right of center conservative and independent, in times of crisis, Depressions, World Wars, tend to unite together liberally. The title of the book reflects the return to conservative independence just before 9/11.

[Mister D]

We often hear about the influence of biology on personality which makes a great deal of sense but the terms "conservative" and liberal" are hopelessly contextual. IOW, they mean different things in different times and in different places. Indeed, they would have no meaning at all in many circumstances. In this case, I don't think "science" is telling us anything interesting or useful.

[Ransom]

I don't really see how that could be refuted, let's take a look, let's look at the link provided. Great job with the link.


In the first of four studies, 538 undergraduate students were asked to score how prone they are to anger, how competitive they are and how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements like, "Laws of nature are responsible for differences in wealth in society," and "If people work hard, they almost always get what they want."

538 undergrads.........two examples of the questions asked.....that supposedly measure how prone to anger you are.....and how competitive you are. AM I f'n reading that right, wait..........yeah.....they're asking undergrad rocket scientists.....if they agree or disagree with "Laws of nature are responsible for differences in wealth in society," and "If people work hard, they almost always get what they want"...........and that measures........how prone to anger you are....and......what a competitive nature you have? I can't see anything wrong the questions or conclusions, let's move on.


Next, the two business professors enlisted 203 paid participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing internet marketplace, to write essays and then answer surveys.

203 people from a crowdsourcing marketplace who you're paying? Ok.....all 203 of you are paid?

The question of what makes people angry elicited a wide range of responses, including:
I can't f'n wait......


"Traffic makes me angry. People tend to leave all rational thoughts behind them when they get behind the wheel of a car. People don't pay attention to what they are doing when they drive, and it leads to dangerous situations. It is even worse when there is rain or heavy congestion. Traffic makes me angry because it brings out the aggression of others."

Traffic that everyone has to deal with...leans economically conservative when it causes someone to be angry...is I think how that reads.


"I get angry when people ask me for advice, and then don't follow the advice I give them. I also get angry when people try to think for me. When either of these things happen, I get restless and stressed. I will try to leave the room or calm down in a place by myself and away from anyone else."

This is called marriage......and I reckon that is economically conservative when angry, I know my wife is conservative with a few goods and services when she is angry with me.

The article is a heaping pile of manufactured supposition, what we here in my parts call a bunch of bullsnot.

[Kacper]

It is typical loss framing v. gain framing thinking .