What you do in the voting booth on Election Day could be the product of your system’s hardwiring. According to recent research by Prof. Dana Carney, political left-right differences are rooted in basic heritable personality traits such as openness and conscientiousness.
The study, conducted with professors John Jost (NYU), Sam Gosling (UT-Austin) and Jeff Potter at Atof Inc., demonstrates that liberals are generally messier, more open to new experiences and more expressive than their conservative pals, who tend to be more organized, conventional and reserved. Sound familiar? Recall that Family Ties’ Alex P. Keaton, a suit amongst the hippies, was a die-hard Reagan supporter. However, in this campaign season a substantial number of Republicans have defied the liberal stereotype and crossed the aisle to become “Obamicans.” We spoke with Prof. Carney about this trend. She said:
There is a cognitive style association with being more liberal or more conservative. Liberals are able to tolerate more ambiguity and more ideas all at one time, as well as ideas that don’t have a right answer. That cognitive style lends itself to work in experimental science, literature and other things that are ambiguous. A conservative mind searches for answers and looks for them in black and white; it wants resolution and order in work and life.
We as people are cognitive misers and so we want leaders who will worry about “it” for us. That’s why in last few elections we have seen the electorate gravitate towards leaders who appear to have answers and are not wish-washy, like we saw with [the failure of] John Kerry’s campaign. We want things to be simple so we don’t have to think as much. Historically, we have seen this issue. Democrats tolerate ambiguity and open mindedness. Americans have gravitated away from that because we’re cognitive misers and it is costly to think — we want to reserve these precious cognitive resources for other, more immediate, activities like how to do one’s job, how to raise one’s kids and what to have for dinner.
But Obama has done a lot of conservative things in the way he speaks and in the simplicity of his message. He’s being clear about what he is planning to do and where the country will be during his presidency; he is much more decisive and people have responded to that. McCain has also been decisive and clear. So this decisiveness is certainly not the only thing carrying Obama’s lead in the polls.
Our data suggest that liberals are much warmer and approachable than conservatives. We are certainly seeing this play out among Obama and McCain. Obama is much warmer and charismatic. He smiles more and has more expansive gestures which signal dominance. McCain has a shorter stature and limbs which, even when he does make expansive gestures, appear less dominant than when Obama makes them. McCain has very serious facial expressions and smiles less. McCain is less warm to his family members, as well. All of these nonverbal behaviors add up to Obama appearing more warm and approachable and charismatic which, as we well know, accounts for some of the variance in for whom Americans vote. It seems the recipe for whom Americans elect may well be rooted in some combination of simplicity of message, interpersonal warmth and a charisma quotient.
Photo credit: Bill S.We as people are cognitive misers and so we want leaders who will worry about “it” for us. That’s why in last few elections we have seen the electorate gravitate towards leaders who appear to have answers and are not wish-washy, like we saw with [the failure of] John Kerry’s campaign. We want things to be simple so we don’t have to think as much. Historically, we have seen this issue. Democrats tolerate ambiguity and open mindedness. Americans have gravitated away from that because we’re cognitive misers and it is costly to think — we want to reserve these precious cognitive resources for other, more immediate, activities like how to do one’s job, how to raise one’s kids and what to have for dinner.
But Obama has done a lot of conservative things in the way he speaks and in the simplicity of his message. He’s being clear about what he is planning to do and where the country will be during his presidency; he is much more decisive and people have responded to that. McCain has also been decisive and clear. So this decisiveness is certainly not the only thing carrying Obama’s lead in the polls.
Our data suggest that liberals are much warmer and approachable than conservatives. We are certainly seeing this play out among Obama and McCain. Obama is much warmer and charismatic. He smiles more and has more expansive gestures which signal dominance. McCain has a shorter stature and limbs which, even when he does make expansive gestures, appear less dominant than when Obama makes them. McCain has very serious facial expressions and smiles less. McCain is less warm to his family members, as well. All of these nonverbal behaviors add up to Obama appearing more warm and approachable and charismatic which, as we well know, accounts for some of the variance in for whom Americans vote. It seems the recipe for whom Americans elect may well be rooted in some combination of simplicity of message, interpersonal warmth and a charisma quotient.
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