Right-wingers have lower emotional intelligence, study finds

[superpatriotman]

https://www.psypost.org/2019/09/people-with-lower-emotional-intelligence-are-more-likely-to-hold-right-wing-views-study-finds-54369

New research from Belgium provides evidence that deficits in emotion understanding and emotion management are related to right-wing and prejudiced attitudes. The study has been published in the journal Emotion.

“I have a lifelong interest in political psychology and in political ideology in particular. The observation that left-wing and right-wing adherents tend to differ on so many psychological characteristics is amazing,” said study author Alain Van Hiel, a professor at the University of Ghent

More at link

File under ‘no shit Sherlock’ !

[LuckyCharms]

1. SURPRISE!!!!

[olegramps]

23. Republicans are primate beings just barely above jackals and road kill scavengers

[mr_lebowski]

2. They are incompletely evolved, with much more prominent reptile-brain characteristics ...

They don't really grasp the concept of 'society', 'community', 'humanity' etc. This 'thinking' didn't evolve until late in the evolution of this planet, it 'took a while' ... prior to its evolution, all life was 'every critter for themselves (and their own progeny, at least in some sense)'.

Right-wingers have a lot more of this primitive thinking in the forefront of their brains. Everything is 'me, myself, and mine' ... and fuck everything/everyone else.

[jayschool2013]

9. Excellent

And for most American conservatives, that extends to "my" family, "my" tribe and "my" people, however they define that.

You are correct: They could not give a shit about anyone who doesn't fit into their narrow definitions.

[mr_lebowski]

24. Exactly ... those are part of the 'mine' in my description ...

But ME is nearly always first.

The 'conservative' chimp is the one who, on the outskirts of their group, hears a larger band of angry 'other' chimps approaching to steal their turf, thinks 'I'm in trouble!' and quietly skeedaddles and hides to save his own ass. The 'liberal' chimp thinks 'we're in trouble', and starts screeching to warn the others that danger is coming, even though s/he's the first one at risk by raising the alarm.

Fundamentally 2 different survival strategies, probably equally effective ... but one is much more evolved.

[John Fante]

28. Yup. This is why they're able to feel empathy

for the undocumented immigrant neighbor who gets deported, but not for the children being seperated from their families at the border. They only care about themselves and maybe their inner circle.

[aggiesal]

16. I have a right wing friend ...

Everything is 'me, myself, and mine'

She once asked me that shouldn't a person be allowed to charge as much as
they can on the product they've invested in and/or created?

She did not like my response.

1) I believe in the theory of Supply & Demand.
Except in instances that are life & death.
No pharmaceuticals should be allowed to charge based on Supply & Demand
because it will cost people lives. Martin Shkreli, who's company raised the price
of an AIDS pill by a factor of 56 from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
Not to mention, Hospitals, Health Insurance companies ... it's all one big monopoly.
You get diagnosed with an illness, you can't shop around for the best priced treatment,
we are all pretty much tied to our hospital/doctor because of the health insurance we
have.

2) I don't believe that Supply & Demand should apply to a captured market.
For example, I can only get San Diego Gas & Electric. They are owned by Sempra Energy.
I don't believe that they should be allowed to charge based on the S&D theory, because
we customers have no other option. We don't buy from SDG&E, we don't get electricity.
Gas & Electric companies used to be PUBLIC utilities where they were limited to around
8% profit.
To this example, Enron created the "Brown Outs" in California, when they
purposefully, shutdown a power plant for "Maintenance", during peak hours. Then proceeded
to gouge the electric companies and the state, for the remaining electricity. These "Brown Outs"
affected hospitals, day care centers, retirement homes, medical equipment, ..., and they
cost lives, when elderly had to choose between paying their $600 per month electric bill
for a small apartment or paying for their prescriptions.

3) I don't believe a company has the right to apply Supply & Demand Theory when their
product was first developed by the government (i.e. us). They've used our millions of $$$'s
to produce something like the internet, then they buy and make exorbitant money.
Where I live, I can only use COX as my sole provider for any telecommunications. Of
course I can use DirecTV Or DISH as well for TV, but I have to use COX for my internet
because no other company runs lines to my neighborhood. I can use other companies, but
COX as the right to the "LAST MILE" so these "other" companies would have to piggyback
onto COX line, so they still get a cut, which drives the "other" companies fees up, to the
point where they can't compete against COX!
We laid down the infrastructure to run their cables.
We built the power line infrastructure that allows Sempra to get their electricity from their
power plant to our homes.
We've already paid!!! Their product should be treated like a public utility and limit their profits.

So NO, I don't believe a company should be allowed to apply the theory of S&D and charge
as much as possible, because they've invested in and/or created their product.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are my 3 main reasons.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Which doesn't tell us what we can do about it.

[lunatica]

5. It does tell us a lot because we have a much higher emotional intelligence

We can think outside the me, mine and myself trap. But first we have to accept them for what they are or we’ll never learn to deal with them. By accept I mean accept facts for what they are. Stop wasting our time believing they care about anything outside their very narrow abilities, or trying to convince them of anything. They’ve made up their minds so facts just confuse them.

Then we can make choices and decisions we know are right. It’s not all that hard.

[superpatriotman]

14. This!

Put them on IGNORE

[redstatebluegirl]

4. Really, you think?????

[Coventina]

6. Seriously, I experienced this, being raised by right-wing parents.

I grew up.

They didn't.

[meow2u3]

7. Translation: Right wingers never grew up

They remain children emotionally. Enuf said.

Since children can't vote, should RWNJs?

[Scarsdale]

8. Shining example of

never growing up, maturing is out on the golf course, or tweeting bullshit with his stubby thumbs. Disgrace to the entire country.

[UpInArms]

10. From the article:

“The results of this study were univocal. People who endorse authority and strong leaders and who do not mind inequality — the two basic dimensions underlying right-wing political ideology — show lower levels of emotional abilities,” Van Hiel told PsyPost.

Those with lower emotional and cognitive abilities were also more likely to agree with blatantly prejudiced statements such as “The White race is superior to all other races.”

... glad they have shown what we already knew,

[Beringia]

11. This may explain some

but there are a lot of people who are right wingers, who are that way because they were raised in a rural community or their family are right wingers. This makes it sound like it is an individual trait, when I think it is commonly a community trait.

[Brainfodder]

12. Replacement words for stupid to soften the blow?

Dancing around it, this is quite a hilarious article to me.

Already knew they were dolts when they went proudly "deplorable".

[dlk]

13. I Would Say they Have Lower General Intelligence

They are followers, like sheep.

[smirkymonkey]

15. Kicked and bookmarked!

[BamaRefugee]

17. They're also born without the sarcasm and the irony genes. They never, EVER,"get it".

[tymorial]

18. The comments about this article and study are quite fascinating.

It's like some didnt bother to read the article let alone the study. Correlation does not imply causation. Also, engaging in prejudicial and hostile assessments of an entire group of people (lizard brain and less evolved).. seriously? That's what you are going to go with when discussing emotional intelligence?

Unreal.

[Hortensis]

20. I mention personality differences quite often, but I emphatically

to not agree with many of these shockingly hostile and clueless comments also.

Those who wonder what the problem is should try substituting "black" or "woman" for "right-wingers" in comments that would dismay but not surprise the researchers and see how they sound then.

And then maybe go looking for important insights that research into bigotry, demonizing, and uberpartisanship have revealed about all who indulge.

No need to go further than this thread, though, to see how unleashing our own potential can erase differences. When leaders speak of the need to erase the vast gulf between right and left for the good of our nation, that's not what they mean.

[ret5hd]

25. For a more apt substitution, why don't we try...

"Nazi" or "Fascist" or "Torturer" or "Puppy Killer".

Why would those not be a more appropriate substitution than "black" or "woman"?

This is almost like those "discussions" where we are told that "intolerance of intolerance" is the ultimate intolerance.

[Hortensis]

26. Vicious political bigotry from BOTH left and right is exactly what Putin

and others have been creating in millions of willing, useful idiots so that we'll destroy our superpower democracy internally instead of uniting to smash them. Way past time to realize what those soaking up RW nastiness and delighting in flinging it back have become part of.

Past time to look into the future also. Have you wondered, ret5hd, if America fails to unite to recreate our fighting center, what you would tell your children about what you did while our democracy was tearing itself apart? Is this response it?

That good people like you had to refuse to join those uniting to defeat fascism and save your children's right to vote (how'd that be for the ultimate...irony?) because refusal to be "intolerant of intolerance (i.e., unite to fight) would have been the ultimate intolerance"?

Maybe play that one over.

[John Fante]

29. Nice bothsideisms you got there.

[Joe941]

30. Stop with the both sides...

[The_jackalope]

31. That's an excellent suggestion

Othering has no "native ideology". The exercise you suggest could open some eyes. I wonder how many will try it.

[Newest Reality]

27. Well, no true Scotsman would say that! ;)

Yeah, I think we could watch out more for generalizations that appeal to our individual and collective biases, because you could cite many historical examples in other situations that reveal just how slippery that slope gets.

We are all living entities called human beings who exist in many diverse situations and mindsets and even our developmental experiences vary greatly, so upbringing is an important contextual factor. There is also an implicit, polar relationship between the left and right, so they exist in context as a relationship to each other.

It should be rather clear that generalizing is an abstraction that is utilized for many reasons like brevity or for the sake of simplicity, but logically, accuracy is more about specificity and particulars within a set or subset.

I'll stop with that.

[KPN]

19. Haha. Done -- filed in my "no shit Sherlock"

accordion file.

[elocs]

21. The right wing holds to the YOYO philosophy: You're On Your Own.

They resent anybody getting anything that THEY judge are unworthy of receiving. But when they want something for themselves they want it NOW.

I've always thought that empathy is a defining characteristic that separates the Left from right wingers who too often are lacking in it for anyone other than those who believe as they do.

The problem we face is that there are tens of millions of right wingers and they aren't going anywhere and they tend to often vote like it was their duty so they have one up on us in that respect.

[barbtries]

22. exactly.

he's been studying it for years and is amazed at these results?

trump is the prime example. an actually infantile authoritarian narcissist who never advanced emotionally beyond the age of about 2.

[lame54]

32. Another pointless study...

Anybody here could have told them that