Confident kids become liberals, Whiny kids become conservatives...

[insein]

Expert scientific research yielded these results. Before you start to worry too much, it was conducted by Berkeley. :cof:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...le&cid=1142722231554&call_pageid=970599119419

How to spot a baby conservative
KID POLITICS | Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ...
Mar. 19, 2006. 10:45 AM
KURT KLEINER
SPECIAL TO THE STAR


Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial.

In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it's a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.

Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into the psychology of conservatism, and concluded that people who are dogmatic, fearful, intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty, and who crave order and structure are more likely to gravitate to conservatism. Critics branded it the "conservatives are crazy" study and accused the authors of a political bias.

Jost welcomed the new study, saying it lends support to his conclusions. But Jeff Greenberg, a social psychologist at the University of Arizona who was critical of Jost's study, was less impressed.

So now liberals are down to trying to use fake science to call conservatives whiny babies? All i can say is LMAO!!!!! More proof that libs have waaaaaay too much time on their hands.

 

[fuzzykitten99]

if the link didn't say 'the star', i would have guessed this came from The Onion.

I would almost say their study (if you can call it that) is either biased OR...they switched the actual results. I would think that the more confident and self-assured kids would be conservative, because they KNOW what they want, and will work to get it, and tend to think more logically and practical than emotionally.

The whinier, more dependent kids would be more liberal because they want people to take care of them rather than try to take care of themselves, and are more inclined to decisions based on emotion rather than logic or practicality.

 

[Nuc]

So now liberals are down to trying to use fake science to call conservatives whiny babies? All i can say is LMAO!!!!! More proof that libs have waaaaaay too much time on their hands.

Fake science? Maybe it should be called "Intelligent Whining".

 

[Nienna]

So, the whiny kids got it all out of their systems when they were young, and they grew up to be conservatives.

The "more confident" kids were actually just late bloomers. They're still whining, and they call themselves "liberals."



Ta da!

 

[left alone]

I need a pick-up load of this to help green up my lawn....

 

[Abbey Normal]

I'd LOVE to see how Berkeley defines liberal and conservative. That alone would be hilarious.

 

[musicman]

Liberal-friendly studies are so easy to debunk; all you have to do is find the lie:

"Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative."

The lie in this particular case occurs in that the study was loaded at the front end. Any child whose upbringing placed him at odds with the Berkeley brand of liberal orthodoxy would not have had to to imagine that "everyone was out to get him". The study's outcome was assured from the start; this is how liberals make sure their studies come out "right".

 

[Semper Fi]

I'm a self-assured and confident youth, I'm a conservative. From what I can see, and that's first-hand, conservatives are the smart students who know whats right and follows and defends it. Liberals are the ones that whine and complain and do nothing all day. I'm surrounded by them right now in class, no study can disprove that.

Most students are liberals, so the ones who are not politcally aware lean to the left because they want to follow the crowd and be accepted. I, however, hold myself above that. I stay away from name-brand clothes, drugs, and "coolness" (though I am the official definition of cool). That, as far as I am concerned, is self-confidence. All those studies can go to hell.

Funny thing is, when we can debate, we (the republicans) always win, and liberals walk away. That, or we convert the un-thinkers to conservativism, even for just a little while.

 

[Nienna]

I'm a self-assured and confident youth, I'm a conservative. From what I can see, and that's first-hand, conservatives are the smart students who know whats right and follows and defends it. Liberals are the ones that whine and complain and do nothing all day. I'm surrounded by them right now in class, no study can disprove that.

Most students are liberals, so the ones who are not politcally aware lean to the left because they want to follow the crowd and be accepted. I, however, hold myself above that. I stay away from name-brand clothes, drugs, and "coolness" (though I am the official definition of cool). That, as far as I am concerned, is self-confidence. All those studies can go to hell.

 

[musicman]

I'm a self-assured and confident youth, I'm a conservative... I am the official definition of cool

:halo: :rotflmao:

That you are, my friend - that you are!

 

[Annie]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004831.htm

SCOOP: WHO ARE THE WHINY KIDS?
By Michelle Malkin · March 23, 2006 04:11 PM

An anonymous tipster sends some intriguing information about the "whiny kids grow up to be conservatives" study conducted by left-wing UC Berkeley prof Jack Block.

Wondering where the nursery school kids who were the subjects of the study came from? Check this out:

I know exactly which "nursery school" was used as the basis of this study. It is not mentioned anywhere in the text of the 16-page pdf you provided for downloading, but I know because -- well, because I know people who were some of the subjects of this study (and of other similar studies). And an extremely important fact about this school renders the entire study false.

The nursery school cited is actually the "Harold E. Jones Child Study Center," on Atherton St. in Berkeley. It used to have a different name if I remember -- I think it used to be called the "Atherton Child Study Center."

Go to this URL to see their Web site.

If you want proof that this is indeed the school used for the study, go to this URL.

This page is part of the "Institute for Human Development," which is the department at Cal which runs the school. It is part of and connected to the Child Study Center site link above. About halfway down on this page (search for "Jack Block") you'll see that they mention that the data gathering part of this study was done at the Center:

"A renowned longitudinal study of development originated by Jeanne and Jack Block began with children at three and followed them at 4, 5, 7, 11, 14 18, and 23 years of age."

Compare that to this text from the final study (in the pdf):

Pre-school children subsequently relatively conservative at age 23

What is so significant about this? Well, the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center is only open to children of U.C. Berkeley faculty and staff:

The University Preschool offers full-day developmental child care for preschool-aged children of UCB faculty and staff.

(The "Preschool" is a subset of the "Child Study Center.")

In other words, ALL of the children in that study were the offspring of U.C. Berkeley professors, lecturers, and staff members.

The reason the Child Study Center is so popular is that they offer free/cheap child care/nursery schooling in exchange for the parents allowing their kids to be "studied" by psychologists all day every day.

And here's the clincher (you probably already saw it coming):

UC Berkeley faculty was rated the most left-wing in the country: 91% of teachers there were classified as liberal:

"University of California, Berkeley (91 percent liberal)."

So, we have documented proof that the "whiny babies" in this study were basically ALL the children of liberal parents.

With this fact in hand, we can completely turn the study around:

Firstly, it was the liberal parents that made their kids whiny to begin with.

Secondly, it could just as easily be argued that, even at a very early age, some kids don't get along with their parents, and so become "whiny." Then, when those kids grow older, they rebel against their parents, as a way of disassociating themselves from their parents' influence. And if your parents are liberal (as they all were in this study), then you rebel by becoming a conservative!

That's it for the documented-facts part of the scoop. But on a more informal, anecdotal level: I have personally witnessed what goes on at the Child Study Center (or what went on there several years ago - I'm sure it's the same today, as its mission has not changed):

Toddlers and young children (generally aged between 2 and 5) frolic around and do activities as in any day care/nursery school/kindergarten setting. But the difference is there are adult researchers (some even with the proverbial clipboards) hovering around at all times, monitoring the kids, "observing" their behavior, writing down little notes and filling out charts about the kids' personalities and activities and so on.

And here's the key, from my personal observation: the researchers get it all wrong! They often have some esoteric psychological/behavioral academic fad they're trying to prove, so they ascribe the most bizarre and ludicrous motivations for the kids' actions, scribbling notes about "ego resilience" and "crypto-sexual manifestations" and blah blah blah. It would be comical if if wasn't taken so seriously. I can assure you that whatever data they gathered in the '60s or '70s about how "whiny" these kids were was totally bogus and off-the-mark.

Maybe they were whiny because they were more intellectually developed than the other kids and were frustrated in an overly infantile environment. Maybe they were whiny because the "counselors" detected early indications of independent thought and action in these kids, and forced them to conform to their Socialist ideals, causing the future conservatives to feel resentful.
​

Someone should follow up with the UC Berkeley guinea pigs and ask them.

 

[KarlMarx]

I remember just how confident all those liberals were after the 2000 elections. I remember how they treated us all to a non-stop temper tantrum for 4 years. Then, of course, when Kerry lost the 2004 election, those confident liberals all marched into therapy.

Liberals have raised whining from a kid's past time to a lifestyle.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Expert scientific research yielded these results. Before you start to worry too much, it was conducted by Berkeley. :cof:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...le&cid=1142722231554&call_pageid=970599119419



So now liberals are down to trying to use fake science to call conservatives whiny babies? All i can say is LMAO!!!!! More proof that libs have waaaaaay too much time on their hands.

The truth hurts...Don't it.

 

[Semper Fi]

The truth hurts...Don't it.

Yeah...maybe you libs can take up golf, or model building.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Yeah...maybe you libs can take up golf, or model building.

Sorry, I've got things to do, like defrosting the freezer or watching grass grow.

 

[manu1959]

Sorry, I've got things to do, like defrosting the freezer or watching grass grow.

you should turn in that olde energy wasting fridge and get a frost free energy star one.....and laws waste water and are not an indigenous species......damn you call yourself a liberal?

 

[Bonnie]

"Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative."

This really goes counter as to why liberals are whiny in general. Maybe it should be rewritten to say remember that whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be Ted Kennedy...Or something like that :baby4:

In fact most conservatives I know or have met in life are rather happy laid back people.

 

[manu1959]

This really goes counter as to why liberals are whiny in general. Maybe it should be rewritten to say remember that whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be Ted Kennedy...Or something like that :baby4:

In fact most conservatives I know or have met in life are rather happy laid back people.

all these kids parents were liberals ..... there are no conservatives in berkeley

 

[Bonnie]

all these kids parents were liberals ..... there are no conservatives in berkeley

Yes I know that, hence the rewrite to attempt some portrayal of reality :tng:

 

[insein]

The truth hurts...Don't it.

I think for a study showing the whiny ness of liberals vs conservatives i'll goto UTAH and show how good conservative kids are and how bad liberal ones are.

Come on bully. This is weak even for you to attach yourself to with a one liner.