The evidence is in
What I've long suspected about right-wingers appears to be true, at least according to Psychology Today.
A recent article in PT says there's a direct corelation between the political ideologies of adults and their childhood temperaments. A study of childhood personalities, started in 1969, asked nursery school teachers to rate their students' temperaments. 20 years later the subjects' adult political leanings were compared with the data on their childhood personalities. The results show a compelling relationship between political ideologies and certain childhood personality traits.
Kids who became liberals as adults were rated in childhood as "self-reliant, energetic, impulsive and resilient". Adult conservatives were described as children who were "easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited and vulnerable". The difference was that the insecure kids were the ones most in need of the sense of security provided by authority and tradition, which they eventually found in conservative ideology.
And if you need any more proof, just scroll through the comments in any of the popular con-blogs; the fear and insecurity is palpable.
A recent article in PT says there's a direct corelation between the political ideologies of adults and their childhood temperaments. A study of childhood personalities, started in 1969, asked nursery school teachers to rate their students' temperaments. 20 years later the subjects' adult political leanings were compared with the data on their childhood personalities. The results show a compelling relationship between political ideologies and certain childhood personality traits.
Kids who became liberals as adults were rated in childhood as "self-reliant, energetic, impulsive and resilient". Adult conservatives were described as children who were "easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited and vulnerable". The difference was that the insecure kids were the ones most in need of the sense of security provided by authority and tradition, which they eventually found in conservative ideology.
And if you need any more proof, just scroll through the comments in any of the popular con-blogs; the fear and insecurity is palpable.
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