I don't really disagree with any of this, but it is not just academic psychologists who are more liberal than the general (US ) population. It is nearly all academics -- psychologists are just one small part of a much wider phenomenon. There have been lots of hypotheses put forward for why this is, but self-selection has always struck me as the least in need of special pleading. But you don't have to take it from me. Ask a Nobel Prize-winning economist (and admitted liberal): http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/opinion/05krugman.html
Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo Office: 416-736-2100 ext. 66164 Fax: 416-736-5814 ========================= Pollak, Edward wrote: > > > > > So why are academic psychologists more likely to be liberal. I have > a theory.that is probably not new: We are trained to look for the > causes of behavior. And because of the behaviorist influences on so > many of us, we tend to look for environmental causes. But even the > biological types among us (myself included) look for causes of behavior. > > In my experience (and understanding), liberals tend to make > situational attributions to explain behavior while conservatives tend > to make dispositional attributions. Those dispositional attributions > are precisely the sort that conservations like to talk about. i.e., > people succeed or fail because of their laziness, ambition, etc. Those > are also precisely the sort of explanations that behaviorists are > most likelt to dismiss. We want to go the extra step and ask "what > external variable cause differences in laziness, ambition, etc. and > how can we change those variables to change behavior. > > I'm suggesting that academics are trained to go deeper in asking about > causation whereas the majority of conservatives that I know are > perfectly happy to make those dispositional attributions and end the > discussion there. I am not suggesting that this more superficial > analysis is a necessary part of all conservative thought (I can > appreciate a George Will) but it seems to be a > rather ubiquitous position among conservatives. > > Ed > > > > > /Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D./ > > /Department of Psychology/ > > /West Chester// University of Pennsylvania/ > > http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/home.htm > <http://home.comcast.net/%7Eepollak/home.htm> > > /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/ > > /Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & bluegrass > fiddler...... in approximate order of importance./ > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=2673 > > <http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=2673> > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-2673-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > <mailto:leave-2673-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2677 or send a blank email to leave-2677-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
