Psychological factors underlying political views.
Heat
Heat may make us more selfish
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4592404/Feeling-little-selfish-blame-hot-weather.html
oxytocin can increase kindness towards refugees
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4779454/The-drug-cure-xenophobia.html
Emotional and affective variables
Anxiety
Empathy
Disgust Sensitivity
Anger
Lay Theories of Happiness http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/why-we-feel-others-pain_b_5385578.html
- If people believe happiness is changable, they are more likely to be empathetic.
" a group of volunteers completed the LTHS and also a measure of empathy as a trait or disposition. They found that those who believed in the changeability of happiness were also more empathetic and concerned about others — and much less callous."
"In another study, they had volunteers read vignettes about people with various travails — homelessness, obesity, recent immigration — and measured their empathy. They found again that beliefs in flexibility of happiness — as opposed to a fixed emotional state — were linked to greater empathy. In a final study, the scientists manipulated volunteers’ beliefs about happiness — stability or flexibility — and then measured both their empathy and behavior toward people with depression."
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167216665092?journalCode=pspc
Physical strength http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2325414/Men-physically-strong-likely-right-wing-political-views.html
Faces http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2010/01/can-you-tell-if-someone-is-a-republican-or-de/
http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html
Altruism http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/03/altruism.pdf
Hormones http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/how-hormones-influence-our-political-opinions
Cognitive Variables
Analytical Thought
Reappraisal
Rationality https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112873/
Experience Variables
Personal Experience of Crime
Political reference points https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28207906
Summary of psychological differences between ideologies
Libertarian Psychology
Utilitarian Psychology
Social conservatives more a) attuned to threats, b) have a lower “need for cognition,”, c) believe in conspirancy theories that align with own beliefs https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/why-fake-news-targeted-trump-supporters/515433/
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/16/13426448/trump-psychology-fact-checking-lies
http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/2/1/14392290/partisan-bias-dan-kahan-curiosity
http://www.vox.com/2016/10/6/13079754/teaching-critical-thinking-schools-health-claims
READ: https://qz.com/525132/the-smartest-most-effective-way-to-win-any-political-argument/?
http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/blog/2012/06/22/the-real-reason-conservatives-always-win/
http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/resource-center/thinking-points/how-conservatives-really-shift-public-opinion/
Trump and polling https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/27/heres-an-actual-good-poll-number-for-donald-trump/?utm_term=.4c7f46287d54
Conservatives not happier than liberals - just more likely to self-enhance
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/new-study-questions-trope-conservatives-are-happier-liberals
"The study, he says, “raises questions about the validity of happiness self-report measures generally.” Kahan wonders if happiness surveys “are truly measuring what we care about.”"
Messaging that resonates with conservatives
Motivated Reasoning
Cognitive Dissonance
Voters and their political elites
The Media
Media Bubbles
news sources
Different people see different news
The impact of fiction
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/conservatives-have-a-fake-news-problem-but-dont-worry-we-can-blame-the-main
Trump's speech to congress is well received http://nypost.com/2017/03/01/trumps-speech-to-congress-gets-high-approval-rating-poll/