New research led by a psychology professor from the University of Wyoming has looked at conservatism and liberalism in American politics. It finds both have good qualities (“values”) and not-so-good qualities (“vices”). The goal of the studies was to understand how these political ideas affect the United States.
“When a person indicates that they are ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative,’ an important part of what they are communicating is their goals for how they would like society to be structured,” the researchers explain. “Yet, past theories have described these goals in dramatically different ways, proposing that either conservativism or liberalism reflects a divisive or unifying goal, leading to allegations of bias.”
Common values
Indeed, the analysis found that there is a clear overlap in terms of what both conservatives and liberals believe are positive and negative things.
“There are unifying ‘values’ and divisive ‘vices’ related to both ends of the political spectrum,” the authors continue. “Conservativism simultaneously reflects the unifying value of tradition, as well as the divisive vice of elitism; while liberalism simultaneously reflects the unifying value of inclusiveness and the divisive vice of rebellion.”
The researchers looked at what people want and how they think about politics. They compared these things for conservatives and liberals in the U.S.
They found that conservatives want their group to be powerful and like to stick to traditions. This can be good for making the group strong, but sometimes it makes them not like different groups.
Liberals care about including everyone and sharing things fairly among different groups. But sometimes, liberals who like to rebel don’t get along well with conservatives.
Building bridges
“…[R]ebellion and anti-conservative prejudice are divisive,” the researchers explain. “Rather than building bridges between different groups, they create divisions and drive people apart. They can add to the polarized environment in which hostilities between the left and right flare more brightly.”
The researchers believe that their research can provide a less biased and common framework for how we view the impact both conservatism and liberalism have on society.
“We really did go to great lengths to be as objective as possible when conducting the research and writing the paper, and not let study design or the paper write-up be biased by our own political leanings,” they conclude. “We just sought to produce truly informative data and let the data speak for itself.”
