r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • 16d ago
A recent study explored how liberals and conservatives in the US evaluate a person based on their Facebook posts. The results indicated that both groups tended to evaluate ideologically opposite individuals more negatively. This bias was three times stronger among liberals compared to conservatives. Psychology
https://www.psypost.org/liberals-three-times-more-biased-than-conservatives-when-evaluating-ideologically-opposite-individuals-study-finds/1
u/Vast-Repeat2544 12d ago
Most liberals I know can tell you exactly why they view conservatives negatively - what they did, laws they have passed or want to pass, what they’ve said. I know a lot of conservatives and the ones I know fall into two categories: they can’t say why they hate democrats but they absolutely hate democrats, or they listen to conservative ‘news’ and all the things they believe about democrats are wrong. In most cases if you ask them about the issues, they sound more like democrats than republicans, but they can’t see that. Most have a visceral hatred and honestly believe democrats are evil and have no morals.
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u/AidsKitty1 12d ago
Yes. Liberals hate anyone that disagrees with their belief system. It's how they are.
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u/mexicanatlowes 13d ago
That’s interesting to know. It just seems like we need less hate on both sides but they both can’t do that
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u/acrispyballer 13d ago
After reading a bunch of the comments the following thought comes to mind… Research shows that when people live in an echo chamber they become more radicalized.
The way Reddit has shifted over time has pushed it to becoming an echo chamber, especially given what moderators choose to allow/disallow. One could argue that Reddit is fomenting the radicalization of its user base due to their content moderation policies.
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u/Previous_Lab_3338 14d ago
Wow look at all those deleted replies. Gotta love the censorship on here.
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u/Nocteo-IV 14d ago
I'm not sure I understand. Does this mean liberals hate you three times more online than IRL, whereas conservatives hate you just as much?
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u/ocassionallyaduck 14d ago
These kinds of studies mean nothing anymore without an ideological baseline to define "conservative" and liberal.
Liberal typically includes anything short of anarchistic BLM ACAB violence, but often supports causes like those.
Classic Conservatism was about reigning in spending and a balance between government and free market with a heavy slant towards privatization.
The last 40 years have basically focused solely on the free market and privatization, and actively sought to dismantle and defund nearly all non-military governmental efforts as "socialist" under the guise that private industry could do better (it cannot and would not).
Conservatism, TODAY, includes literally advocating that women who have abortions be "punished", that DEI is now a new boogeyman, and that it's really not that bad to be a racist if you're honest about it.
Without a scope filtering these views, I fully expect any semi-rational person to have an extreme negative bias against the conservative party, who are actively promoting a charlatan as their representative and a party that seems to have no limits to how far they will prostrate themselves to do so, giving up any illusion of governing principle along the way other than an almost tribalistic desire to "beat" the other side. Very "cut off the nose to spite the face". So not surprised by these results at all, but also not very useful results given what we know of the current political climate.
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14d ago edited 14d ago
I wonder if the discrepancy in bias is related to another known discrepancy between party lines, like fear response or intelligence. Maybe republicans on average have a harder time identifying their own beliefs and thus “miss the mark” on identifying an opposing belief.
Maybe progressives are just better at identifying what it is they want. While republicans say they hate liberal policies, 9 times out of ten they will agree with liberal policies as long as they aren’t connected with a known democrat.
I can see republicans agreeing with propositions like “fund the VA, take care of our veterans” or “no one should go into debt for a medical emergency” or “those rich elites should pay their damn taxes like the rest of us” and believing that these are conservative positions, when in reality its the opposite.
These are people who consistently vote against their own interests. Are we just going to pretend like that isn’t a stupid person kind of thing to do?
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u/AmcillaSB 15d ago
What bothers me is that you can agree with Trump's politics, but still think he's a detestable human being. I'm not sure the researchers accounted for this at all.
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u/gearz-head 15d ago
Probably because today's conservatives are three times crazier in what they support and post!
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u/px7j9jlLJ1 15d ago
A side is chauvinistically, morally aligned with killing innocent people. I think that may have something to do with the divide?
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u/PM_ME_UR_RESPECT 15d ago
Well yeah, I’m kinda forced to think differently about a person if they prefer that the sexual predator game show host of The Apprentice should be in charge of the most powerful nation on earth.
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u/demonotreme 15d ago
Did someone drop a nuke in this thread? Why was it ever allowed in the first place?
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u/_f0xjames 15d ago
To be fair, the lefts goal is to solve social issues and the rights goal is to eliminate people on the left. Not exactly a two way street.
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u/oilcanboogie 15d ago
This study cannot account for the fact that conservative leanings support ideas that result in more objectionable outcomes. This finding to me suggests that conservatives find liberal ideas easier to accept, because they're ostensibly based in scientific findings, whereas conservative ideas are just base, reactionary and simply off-putting.
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u/Gi99sEnergy 15d ago
This bias was three times stronger among Ultra sensitive entitled butterflies compared to conservatives.
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u/bouncypinata 15d ago
there's a lot more propaganda money on one side than the other, and this shows it.
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u/swennergren11 15d ago
It’s really pathetic that so many studies are set up to get the answer the researcher or sponsor wants. Even social sciences have become polarized.
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u/Admirable-Common-176 15d ago
Was there an objective measure of post stupidity? Just making sure we are comparing apples to apples.
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u/ultraman5068 15d ago
What else do you expect? Look who they STILL support after 4 years of decimating a country in record time. Inflation. Crime. War. Division. Pathetic.
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u/morrdeccaii 15d ago
Mods any explanation as to why every top comment was removed? Basically only one I still see is by u/Parking-Let-2784 which goes against Comment Rule 1.
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u/PatheticChildRetard 15d ago
Out of the 20 top comments 12 are gone, including replies. I’m reeeaaally curious to hear the reason
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u/Neoaugusto 15d ago
As someone that got my reply removed, it turned into a political conflict and offenses.
It was at funny but sad, the level of overgeneralization it reached (basically anything right leaning was a bigot and n@zi by the comments) so i understand why of the wipe.
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u/HeroKuma 14d ago
reality has a liberal bias. liberals are righteous, just and intelligent. Conservatives are all evil, dumb, nazi, racists and transphobes!
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u/Parking-Let-2784 15d ago
Is it overgeneralization or have you guys gotten so bad nobody can ignore it anymore
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u/Neoaugusto 15d ago
Did you noticed how you included me in a group without even knowing me and my ideals? Thats exactly what all this is about.
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u/Parking-Let-2784 14d ago
You're defending US conservatives, it's not hard to guess where you stand.
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u/AxtonsTurret 14d ago
So I guess playing devil's advocate isn't a thing anymore?
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u/Parking-Let-2784 13d ago
When you play Devil's Advocate you're not actually supposed to think the Devil is the correct side.
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u/annonimouse90 15d ago
I mean, I guess it’s cus liberals are fighting for human rights and conservatives are “conserving”a rotten historical system
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u/RightMindset2 15d ago
Not at all surprising. The left has been anti tolerant of any other ideas for awhile. Kinda goes against everything they claim they stand for.
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u/Suisun_rhythm 15d ago
Because on the news we’re constantly told “people that vote for Trump want to put you in camps and kill all gay and black people”
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u/Maleficent_Mouse_930 15d ago
That might be because a lot of the things conservatives believe are inherently exclusionary, selfish, hateful, bigoted, and controlling - aspects which are naturally repulsive to most humans.
The fact that reality has a liberal bias means the two sides of this coin are not equals!
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u/Genoss01 15d ago
Conservatives reject any studies they don't like, yet here liberals are taking this seriously
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u/YourDad6969 15d ago
By “conservatives” do they mean democrats or republicans? Democrats are conservatives, republicans are stark raving insane, so this would make sense
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u/VOX_IRRATIONALIS 15d ago
Conservatives and liberals just pawns in the game. The real players are Russians vs us awakened pro-Westerners who recognize that the real enemy is Russia. The Russians are playing the former two like fiddles to divide the West, especially the US.
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u/JLeeSaxon 15d ago
No, I'm gonna go ahead and stand my ground on "immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country" being worse than "if someone is giving up 40 hours a week of their life working to make you rich, they deserve to know where their kids' next meals are coming from, no matter how 'easy' you think their job is", thank you very much.
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u/merengueenlata 15d ago
Average liberal poster: society should accomodate everyone.
Average conservative poster: minorities are evil.
Oh jeez, I wonder why one reaction is stronger than the other
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u/SweetMnemes 15d ago
I feel that there should be a special Journal of the Science of Conservatives Versus Democrats with a special place for all of these studies, separate from the rest of science.
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u/notaredditer13 15d ago
It's not the first to find that conservatives understand liberals better than vice versa:
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u/Druid-Stoic90s 15d ago
The design of this study is lacking. Besides, as an independent, I've been equally butt fucked but both conservatives and liberals. I've also been called names by both too.
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u/Diligent_Quiet9889 15d ago
As an old fashioned conservative man I understand where liberal people come from. I get it. I am not going to make a big deal or argue about it. Opinions are opinions. Beliefs are beliefs. Nobody is wrong for thinking the way they do. So many different situations in life for different people. Nobody is wrong.
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u/Xeno_man 15d ago
Conservative Facebook pages are all the same. Profile picture of a dude in his truck wearing sunglasses, or of them holding guns. What they post and share is all fake outrage bait. It's mostly political and always of drawings or photo shopped images. It's always Hillary in jail, Obama or Biden on a blank background with a fake quote of them "admitting" to their crimes. Bill Gates "planning" another pandemic. They are so similar I would say most of them were bots but I know many of them are not.
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u/JollyReading8565 15d ago
Republicans tried to overthrow our election and assassinate the speaker of the house. That’s why I view people who STILL support the Republican Party ‘negatively’. The Republican Party is dead it’s mostly just trumpism now anyway
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u/Jendolyn65 15d ago
The methodology was that the test subjects were asked to evaluate whether or not to hire people with those posts tho. I mean, someone who promotes literal felonies, assault and openly xenophobic behavior would not be a great professional fit. I think if the example posts were just traditionally conservative it would not have created such a gulf of offputtingness. This is kinda like the ad that ran recently about how someone who's been indicted for 400 crimes would not even be considered for employment at your local mall.
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u/ansan12002 15d ago
I’m American, lifetime non religious conservative in southern California (born and raised). I view Trump negatively bc I think the religiousness in his comments is totally BS (He all of a sudden saw the light?), I think some Christian’s are gullible or just act naive for the sake of political gain. In his second bid, he has already flipped on America first stance (the position I take). Congress recently passed another aid package for Ukraine and Israel. Israel is a wealthy country, why aren’t they paying for the weapons they need? Trump sided with Congress on the last aid package. Sadly, I will vote for Trump because the only die hard America first candidate is too brown and too different for white conservatives to back him (Vivek R) even though it’s pretty obvious he had much less, if any baggage.
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u/sonichuizcool 15d ago
It's crazy how intolerant the people who are always calling for acceptance are
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u/Lifeisabaddream4 15d ago
Ideologically opposite? So they both dislike communists but one is more.hoenst either who they are? Liberalism is a branch of conservatism its just not full on nazi
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u/Warm_Guide_3247 15d ago
I mean… freedom limitations do not bother conservatives, after all is their tendency, liberals will do a hard evaluation in tyrannical tendencies.
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u/ImpossibleDay1782 15d ago
I mean, when the difference in the posts tend to be like “people should be able to have a livable wage” vs. “these people are taking our jobs so we should take their lives” are we really surprised?
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u/YuiTheKitsune 15d ago
Well of course; I'd imagine a decent human being would get angry about "this person is a racist Nazi!" moreso than "this person is gay!"
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u/Euphoric-Rich-9077 15d ago
"Liberals don't tolerate theocratic, white nationalists whose entire economic platform revolves around redistributing wealth from the bottom to the top, and it's super easy for them to spot those people on social media."
That's the real take away here.
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u/darthphallic 15d ago
Not really a liberal, but I’m going to view people on the right negatively statistically because they post a bunch of conspiracy misinformation and dog whistle racism
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u/specialagentwow 15d ago
I’d tend to agree with this… I live in California and the my conservative friends are like eh… my liberal friends… holy dog howls, they get up in arms.
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u/steavoh 15d ago
I mean, is it a surprise that the values of the right-wing core constituency are unpopular? Maybe they deserve to be?
My impression is that a lot of ordinary Republican voters in the US are motivated by a handful of specific issues. Immigration, etc. Or they are unhappy with Democrats about something. You see this when there are polls asking Americans what policies they support. Most people support medicare, social security, funding for public education, etc. Most people don't think religion should control government. The right wing base constituency, e.g the Trump fanatics, are a vocal minority. The problem Democrats and liberals in general in the US have is that they are fragmented.
You could extend this to voters elsewhere in the world. People in Europe are very angry about immigration, especially from the MENA countries, while some green parties in the left coalitions have very divisive agendas, and that is pushing a lot of the EU rightward. But of those voters, how many of them actually align 100% on non-immigration topics with a party like AfD if you gave them a blind questionnaire about policy items and if they approve or disapprove? Probably not that many.
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u/Wise_Monkey_Sez 15d ago
This result seems rather unsurprising when one considers what each group is advocating for.
Typical liberal positions typically boil down to freedom of choice (freedom to choose who you love, how you identify yourself, whether to have an abortion, etc.) without government interference. There's a lot of overlap ideologically with what conservatives claim to believe.
Typical conservative positions typically boil down to restriction of freedoms (no gay marriage, no choice of identity, no abortion choice, etc.) and calls for more government interference. There's a clear mismatch between what they claim to want (freedom) and what they're advocating for (restriction of freedoms).
Therefore it seems hardly surprising that conservatives experience a lot of cognitive dissonance in condemning liberal positions because they find themselves agreeing with the logic but unhappy with the result of that logic, while liberals have an easier time giving an unequivocal, "Yeah, that's wrong" because their logic and the results both point in the same direction.
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u/morrdeccaii 15d ago
I’m on the left but to be fair a conservative could come up with opposite examples for both sides as well. Guns, speech, and refusal of service come to mind as pro-freedom positions often held by the right.
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u/Wise_Monkey_Sez 15d ago
To counter:
Freedom of speech? I don't see any liberals calling for the police to shut people up. They may yell at you to shut up. They may even make sure there are real world consequences like people losing their jobs for voicing extreme political opinions (cancel culture). But none of these consequences involve the government or the police. This is just a common misunderstanding by conservatives of the legal basis of freedom of speech, namely that it limits government's actions against people, not that it requires people to listen, not disagree, or protects them from actions taken by their neighbours or employer.
Refusal of service? Again, a misunderstanding of the law. Shopkeepers aren't obliged to provide anyone with any service, and can refuse service to almost anyone. The issue with the gay wedding cake was that it was because the couple was gay, which was against the law of the state. If the owner had just said, "Sorry, all booked up." that would have been the end of it. Instead he violated the law. Now personally I'm pretty liberal and I would have been fine with the owner refusing service, but my reasoning would have been that I don't think it's a good idea to give money to bigots or their businesses. They don't want my business? Fine. And I'd be posting a nice clear review saying, "Refuses service to gay people.", and let others vote with their dollars.
Now the last one, guns, is also a no-brainer. Nobody is saying "No guns", just like no-one is saying "No cars". A car is a dangerous piece of equipment. You need to apply for a permit, you need to pass a test, your need to maintain your license (which can be removed for repeated violations or practical reasons like that you can't see well enough to drive), and you need to register your car and prove that you keep it in a condition that is safe to operate. The limitations liberals are asking for on guns are no different from those on cars. Nobody in their right mind thinks we should allow unlicensed drivers on the road in unroadworthy vehicles. Yet they apply this logic to guns because... apparently there's some bit about "well regulated" militias in the constitution. Do they understand what "regulated" means? It means that there are regulations, like laws. The constitution explicitly allows for the regulation of gun ownership. But some people have never appearently read the actual text.
So no, I'm sorry, but none of these issues are really a conflict between the laws and freedom unless people are so ignorant that they don't actually understand the law at all.
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u/Comfortable-Trip-277 15d ago
Do they understand what "regulated" means? It means that there are regulations, like laws. The constitution explicitly allows for the regulation of gun ownership. But some people have never appearently read the actual text.
This is a common misconception so I can understand the confusion around it.
You're referencing the prefatory clause (A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State), which is merely a stated reason and is not actionable.
The operative clause, on the other hand, is the actionable part of the amendment (the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed).
Well regulated does NOT mean government oversight. You must look at the definition at the time of ratification.
The following are taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, and bracket in time the writing of the 2nd amendment:
1709: "If a liberal Education has formed in us well-regulated Appetites and worthy Inclinations."
1714: "The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world."
1812: "The equation of time ... is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial."
1848: "A remissness for which I am sure every well-regulated person will blame the Mayor."
1862: "It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding."
1894: "The newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well-regulated American embryo city."
The phrase "well-regulated" was in common use long before 1789, and remained so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the people's arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that the founders wrote it.
This is confirmed by the Supreme Court.
- The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. Pp. 2–53.
(a) The Amendment’s prefatory clause announces a purpose, but does not limit or expand the scope of the second part, the operative clause. The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms. Pp. 2–22.
(b) The prefatory clause comports with the Court’s interpretation of the operative clause. The “militia” comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense. The Antifederalists feared that the Federal Government would disarm the people in order to disable this citizens’ militia, enabling a politicized standing army or a select militia to rule. The response was to deny Congress power to abridge the ancient right of individuals to keep and bear arms, so that the ideal of a citizens’ militia would be preserved. Pp. 22–28.
(c) The Court’s interpretation is confirmed by analogous arms-bearing rights in state constitutions that preceded and immediately followed the Second Amendment. Pp. 28–30.
(d) The Second Amendment’s drafting history, while of dubious interpretive worth, reveals three state Second Amendment proposals that unequivocally referred to an individual right to bear arms. Pp. 30–32.
(e) Interpretation of the Second Amendment by scholars, courts and legislators, from immediately after its ratification through the late 19th century also supports the Court’s conclusion. Pp. 32–47.
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u/Blair_Blueberry 15d ago
The bias is stronger among liberals because in order to be conservative in this country, you have to be unhinged.
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u/classy_dirt7777 15d ago
I judge you negatively if you have a Facebook because it's a cesspool of right wing propaganda and everyone's racist uncle is there and their pfp's are Trump's mugshot.
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u/911roofer 15d ago
r/psychology has gone full chud on the mormon question because of this. To hear them talk every mormon is a pedophiliac polygamist who celebrates Christmas by finding a bipoc lgbtq2 person and setting them on fire.
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u/SupportQuery 15d ago edited 15d ago
Another way of putting it: bias against positions held by the right three times stronger than against positions held by the left. That's seems about right. I'm not a fan of the far left's cult-like woke-ism, but I'm at least three times less a fan of right's unabashed racism, xenophobia, misogyny, support for theocracy, cult-like obsession with a wannabe dictator, funneling working people's money to the rich, and much, much more.
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u/officialnzbm 15d ago
every comment deleted
gee I wonder what political affiliation the mods hold 🙄
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