Conservatives, liberals, and “the negative”

Abstract

The authors connect conservatism with aversion to negativity via the tendentious use of the language of threats to characterize conservatism, but not liberalism. Their reliance upon an objective conception of the negative ignores the fact that much of the disagreement between liberals and conservatives is over whether or not one and the same state of affairs is negative or positive.

The Politics of Fear: Is There an Ideological Asymmetry in Existential Motivation?

“…Nevertheless, skeptics continue to deny that meaningful ideological differences in existential motivation exist, claiming instead that liberals and conservatives are equally fearful and that exposure to highly threatening circumstances produces symmetrical (but opposite) effects of "ideological intensification" (e.g., Anson et al, 2009;Castano et al, 2011;Chambers, Schlenker, & Collisson, 2013;Charney, 2014;Greenberg & Jonas, 2003;Huddy & Feldman, 2011;Proulx et al, 2012). In contrast, a theory of political ideology as motivated social cognition proposed by Jost et al (2003) suggests that there is an "elective affinity" between existential needs to reduce threat and politically conservative rhetoric and ideology, insofar as the latter tends to offer relatively simple, decisive, rigid, orderly, familiar, conventional, efficient, black-and-white, hierarchical, and authoritative solutions to social problems, challenges, and opportunities.…”

“…Despite these historical and anecdotal examples, some have argued that fear plays just as prevalent a role on the political left as it does on the right (Anson, Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg, 2009;Castano et al, 2011;Charney, 2014;Greenberg & Jonas, 2003;Malka, Soto, Inzlicht, & Lelkes, 2014). Oft-cited cases include President Lyndon B. Johnson's well-known "Daisy Chain" advertisement that preyed upon fears of a nuclear war-although the advertisement aired only once on television during the 1964 campaign (Begley, 2007).…”

“…Despite the relative uniformity of evidence that has accumulated, skepticism persists in some quarters of the social sciences. A number of authors deny that there is any meaningful relationship between conservative ideology and existential mo-tives to reduce fear and threat (Anson et al, 2009;Castano et al, 2011;Charney, 2014;Greenberg & Jonas, 2003;Malka et al, 2014).…”

Causation and Behavior: The Necessity and Benefits of Incorporating Evolutionary Thinking into Political Science

“…Responding to the claims on the heritability of political traits, some scholars have questioned whether it makes sense to say that evolution has influenced the character of political phenomena, such as liberal and conservative ideologies, if these phenomena are a result of recent sociocultural or historical events (Charney, 2008, 2014). For example, does it make sense to say that communism is influenced by evolution even though the writings of Karl Marx are responses to the social and economic conditions of 18th‐century Europe and the philosophical works of the Young Hegalians (Nicolaevsky and Maenchen‐Helfen, 1976)?…”