Thursday, June 15, 2006
Get that whiny brat a Bush-Cheney T-Shirt
The Toronto Star reports on a study the likes of which will amuse lefties to no end while making the Hannity-Limbaugh-O'Reilly crowd rush to the barricades faster than they can defend Ann Coulter.
Turns out a long-term longitudinal behavioral/psychological study indicates that whiny, insecure toddlers grow up to be political and social conservatives while self-confident, secure ragamuffins tend to develop a liberal, open worldview and political stance.
Now of course there are a whole lot of caveats here. The researcher himself, Jack Block, notes that the study of 95 kids over 20 years was done in Berkeley, and that results may vary in, shall we say, less-Uber-granola settings. Still, to my thinking, that anyone could grow up there and actually turn out ultra-conservative should be at least a marginal hat tip to the study's predictive ability.
Also there's the notion of 'social science' itself. This study explained seven percent of the variance (which is pretty conclusive as far as the discipline goes) but once again leaves 93 percent unaccounted for.
Which really, though off-topic, was and is my basic problem with social science. Put another way, if your mechanic figured out (without any doubt) seven percent of the reason why your brakes had been failing, would you be inclined to embark on that drive through the Rockies you'd been planning?!
I thought not.
Screed notwithstanding, just shoot this link to your conservative friends and enemies, and watch the vitriol rise!!!
The Toronto Star reports on a study the likes of which will amuse lefties to no end while making the Hannity-Limbaugh-O'Reilly crowd rush to the barricades faster than they can defend Ann Coulter.
Turns out a long-term longitudinal behavioral/psychological study indicates that whiny, insecure toddlers grow up to be political and social conservatives while self-confident, secure ragamuffins tend to develop a liberal, open worldview and political stance.
Now of course there are a whole lot of caveats here. The researcher himself, Jack Block, notes that the study of 95 kids over 20 years was done in Berkeley, and that results may vary in, shall we say, less-Uber-granola settings. Still, to my thinking, that anyone could grow up there and actually turn out ultra-conservative should be at least a marginal hat tip to the study's predictive ability.
Also there's the notion of 'social science' itself. This study explained seven percent of the variance (which is pretty conclusive as far as the discipline goes) but once again leaves 93 percent unaccounted for.
Which really, though off-topic, was and is my basic problem with social science. Put another way, if your mechanic figured out (without any doubt) seven percent of the reason why your brakes had been failing, would you be inclined to embark on that drive through the Rockies you'd been planning?!
I thought not.
Screed notwithstanding, just shoot this link to your conservative friends and enemies, and watch the vitriol rise!!!
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