Four Psy Studies that Suggest Conservative Beliefs are Fighting Human Nature and Liberal-Progressive Policies are Right

Psychology is the raison d’être of Ye Olde Blogge, so I am happy to be able to present the findings of these four articles and apply them to our current political situation. I’m even happier that they seem to suggest that the liberal progressive approach to public policy is the one that is best supported by the scientific evidence. We’ve got everything from support for early childhood education and enrichment to embracing change being supported here.

The Case for Early Childhood Education

Socioeconomic Status Leaves Deep Imprints on Developing Brains

In a finding that is one of the most powerful arguments for investing in neighborhoods, early childhood, and young parents, chronic stress and sleep deprivation have the greatest influence on child brain functioning. A huge study based on the 12,000 nine and ten year olds in the NIH-funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study evaluated the influence of 649 lifestyle variables on the structure and function of children’s brains. They found that 16% of the variation in the functioning of children’s brains was due to socioeconomic variables. These variables included home ownership, neighborhood poverty rates, family income, and access to transportation.

These socioeconomic variables were more important than parenting style, health, and IQ. The influence was caused by unnecessary chronic stress and sleep deprivation. The brain’s of children from lower socioeconomic levels were literally physically exhausted and distressed. When these factors were controlled for 70% of all IQ correlations with brain structure and functional network strength disappeared.

Children from higher socioeconomic levels don’t score better on IQ tests because they have superior intelligence; they score better because their brains are better rested and less stressed. This finding puts teeth into the notion of white privilege because these findings support the idea that the stresses and strains of poverty and discrimination have real physiological and measurable consequences on real live human beings. Growing up in households where stress and strain aren’t chronic and a consistent good night’s sleep is possible has real tangible benefits for the life prospect of the child.

If we implement programs that support children so that they get proper amounts of sleep and experience less family stress, then some of these socioecnomically based disparities will be reduced. Of course, it will not sit well with your pull yourself up by your bootstraps Republicans hyping the self-made man like Trump who didn’t get no help from no one to get where they are today.

Unequal Social Relationships don’t Warrant Reciprocity

Reciprocal Generosity is Abandoned Inside Unequal Social Relationships

One good turn deserves another, right? If someone does your a favor, then you should do them one, right? Apparently, tracking who has done you a favor and, therefore, who you owe a favor to burdens the brain with cognitive load. And, since we are inherently lazy, we don’t want to do too much thinking, so we evolved an interesting short cut for making this turn about is fair play system more manageable.

When you’re dealing with someone who is your social equal, then you will track who has done you a favor, who you have done favors for, and who owes who. It makes sense since your social equals were most of the folks in your hunter gatherer tribe and later on the people you interacted with most. That kind of equitability in helping one another made sense in ensuring the success of the entire group.

When you’re dealing with someone who is not your equal, either in a higher or lower station, then you dispense with tracking the favors done and simply rely on precedence. If someone once did you a favor, then you expect them to continue doing them. If you did them a favor, then you are obligated to continue doing so.

Given that our society consists of unequal social groups often based on ethnicity, gender, and income, it would make sense that we would view members of any group that were of the servant class to continue serving and feel no obligation to do anything for them. I wonder if that prediction would bear out.

Could it be that the resentment that many white people feel towards Blacks is based on their identification of being descendants from slaves? Could it be that white people expect Blacks to continue being servile? If so, this would also extend to women who are seen as supporting their family through unpaid service. And, does this explain the entitlement that goes along with climbing the socioeconomic ladder, expecting things to be done for you and not to be held to the same standards?

If so, does this mean that representing these same people in non-servile roles in entertainment, advertisements, and the work place would change the way we see the entire class of people? Would this finding justify DEI initiatives and make our society truly more equitable and egalitarian, which is anathema to conservatives who, among other views, hold that society is naturally striated by classes and privilege?

Does Economic Disappointment Force Changes in Voting Preferences

Brain’s Internal Disappointment Meter Forces Behavioral Change

Conventional wisdom has it that all elections are essentially economically driven, meaning that if the economy is good, the incumbents win, and if bad, the challengers. A recent study has identified a neurological mechanism by which disappointment is measured and, therefore, influencing behavior and cognition.

Does this finding strengthen the argument that Trump won in 2024 because of economic angst? Inflation was high and things “seemed” bad in general, so it created such extreme disappointment that a felonious insurrectionist could be swept back into office to destroy our democracy and completely remake the international world order while siphoning off the wealth of the middle class as quickly as he could?

Does disappointment that our Grandpa-in-Chief didn’t spoil us rotten justify our turning to the devil in sheep’s clothing? Do the two balance out?

Does our disappointment with Trump’s performance drive us to protest and eagerly anticipate the midterms and pray for bad things to happen to him and gleefully indulge Schadenfreude whenever possible?

Intelligence = Embracing Change

Highly intelligent people are more likely to ditch old habits for better ideas, study finds

The suite of status quo biases suggest that we prefer to keep the same old same old for as long as possible even if it means being inefficient. A recent study suggests that more intelligent people are less beholden to this suite of biases because they are willing to try new methods of doing things.

What does this say about the differences between liberals and conservatives? Since there is ample evidence suggesting that more progressive and liberal views correlate with intelligence, especially verbal intelligence, it may be that one of the fundamental differences between liberals anc conservatives — their relationship to change — is based on intelligence.

Intelligence is not written in stone, though. It can be changed over a lifetime. However, there are things that we can do that would help ensure that we maximize the god-given intellectual capability that we are born with, starting with enriching earl childhood and going to university.

Conservatives have long maintained that education is indoctrination, but it may be another example of accusations being confessions. They don’t want an honest education based on factual information and critical thinking, but one that tells us what to think and how to understand the world.

Apparently, when all things are equal, people look at the human condition and assume policies that liberal advocate will solve many of our problems.

These four studies provide a lot of fodder for discussion and speculation. No one has done the research to extend these findings to our politics, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t worth in thinking about their implications. Individually, their findings can be used to support a more liberal-progressive approach to social policies, but taken together, they make it seem that conservatives are fighting human nature.

Image Attribution

The image was found on Pietro Zanarini’s Flickr page and has a Creative Commons license.