CONSERVATISM AND PERSONALITY

In: American political science review, Band 52, Heft 1, S. 27-45

Abstract

The study of personality, as a device in pol'al res, cannot be substituted for certain other types of investigation such as the study of institutional & legal structures, descriptions of pol'al processes, etc. In the res described, the liberal or conservative convictions of about 3,000 persons from the state of Minnesota were correlated with the personality traits of the R's. Conservatism was measured by a scale of 9 items, chosen among 539 items tested on a previous sample of 1,200 persons. Contrary to the claims of its partisans, conservatism is not the preferred doctrine of the intellectual elite, but the reverse. Conservative beliefs are found most frequently among the uninformed, the poorly educated & the less intelligent. r of pol'al convictions with social-psychol'al & clinical-personality attributes also revealed that conservatives tended to score at the more 'undesirable' end on every one of such traits. For example, they showed 45% high soc alienation, 62% low soc responsibility, & 47% high sentiment of guilt, as compared to 11%. alienation, 12% low responsibility, & 16% guilt among liberals. The most plausible explanation for these data is that the individual's perception of pol'al realities is structured by a projection of the observer himself. The extreme emphasis on order & duty, the affection for the tried & familiar & the fear of change can easily be understood as doctrinal expressions of a personality pattern that has strong need for order, that cannot bear the uncertainty of questions left open & that yearns for consensus & unequivocal definitions of norms. IPSA.