It turns out that according to a study by one Adam Brown....
...people who are narrow-minded and dogmatic have a poorer working memory capacity, which is what makes it harder for them to process new information.
That's incredible.
I, of course, immediately go to that ego-filled place wherein I have observed that "liberals"* tend to be more knowledgeable about the world than "conservatives." I have also observed that liberals are more likely to make a value out of learning about the unknown, whereas conservatives tend to be happy within their existing belief system.
...It should also be said that this, of course, applies to everyone across the political spectrum. I don't mean to imply that this is completely one-sided. Just, you know, mostly.
But what does my ego have to do with the study? I guess I would say two things:
1) I would think people who don't value education - and who happen to be hostile to education and/or anything 'intellectual' - would be prime candidates for the above study. It's not just dogmatism, it's hostility towards what Adam Brown was testing for.
2) This really, really explains a lot of wingnuts and why some of them sound like broken records.
*Is this a totally unfair and inaccurate use of the terms liberal and conservative? Is this waaaaay overgeneralizing? Yeah, sort of - but some of this is backed up my personal experience, and I'm not going to claim that these are anything but generalizations or trends.
Thanks to BZ for the link.
3 comments:
One of my first points when talking politics with David's dad is that the more education you get, the more likely you are to fall into that "liberal" part of the political spectrum. Yes, it's complicated and a huge generalization, but facts are facts, and the data points in that direction... whaddya gonna do if it just makes "us" look smart? In a way, I hate that separation, but on the other hand, I don't want to be viewed like "those" people (ha!- you know, like, my family - but I love them anyway).
No wonder dogmatic thinking is so prevalent among, say, fervent Iraq supporters or die-hard Republicans these days =)
It's gotta be tough when reality deserts you.
Seriously, though, I'd use this argument to partially explain the prevalence of liberal-voting folks in university settings, or the lack of conservative scholarship - when the standard is not political but intellectual, then conservative thought takes a giant hit - it's been so well designed over the years to win political battles, and conservatives movement figures have been so focused on the political outcomes of their work that the intellectual/academic side of things as a priority has freakin' withered away to nothing.
I'm glad the swaths of stuff I share is useful sometimes.
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