Nicholas Kristof: Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You’re a Liberal

Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You’re a Liberal

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 27, 2009


If you want to tell whether someone is conservative or liberal, what are a couple of completely nonpolitical questions that will give a good clue?

How’s this: Would you be willing to slap your father in the face, with his permission, as part of a comedy skit?

And, second: Does it disgust you to touch the faucet in a public restroom?

Studies suggest that conservatives are more often distressed by actions that seem disrespectful of authority, such as slapping Dad. Liberals don’t worry as long as Dad has given permission.

Likewise, conservatives are more likely than liberals to sense contamination or perceive disgust. People who would be disgusted to find that they had accidentally sipped from an acquaintance’s drink are more likely to identify as conservatives.

The upshot is that liberals and conservatives don’t just think differently, they also feel differently. This may even be a result, in part, of divergent neural responses.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/opinion/28kristof.html

and that's a mighty bold statement.

I'm not about to slap my 83-year-old father, who incidentally has Alzheimer's disease.

and your father has given you permission. Even then, conservatives won't do it because they are so hung up on authority figures.

To feel safer, they readily hand over responsibility for their lives to any authority figure they can find who will promise to take the fear away. They hate real freedom, because freedom entails choice and choice entails risk and risk is frightening. They're much happier in a tightly controlled society where every action is mandated "from above." Life is much less scary that way.

never mind slapping them.

the only time a conservative will stand up to an authority figure is when he is sure that authority figure won't be able to retaliate.

Conservatives kill what they fear.

a slap will bring him back to reality. Yes, I would.

Probably deserved slapping, but he's long dead now.

My dad has a great sense of humor so he'd probably be up for it. (And let's face it, I'm not going to haul off and smack him as hard as I can, because permission or not, he's my dad.)

Contained within the NYT piece was this website link where you can take the "morality" test that they refer to in the piece.

http://www.yourmorals.org/

The testing is done by the University of Virginia. In addition to the morality test they also have quite a few other testing. One of the tests involves issues of the day where they ask about torture. This test is called Political attitudes survey. This is a good one for DU members to take so you can express your thoughts on torture.

Political Attitudes Questionnaire What is your opinion on a number of current controversial issues? (For participants in the U.S. only)