Liberal or Conservative

I’ve been curious over the years how people become entrenched in their beliefs.  Information that I thought would encourage people to question their beliefs only caused them to become more entrenched.

I understand that deep-seated beliefs are independent of intelligence.  Liberal and conservative friends range from barely able to come out of the rain to near genius.  If intelligence does not predict a liberal or conservative leaning, then what does?

Based on discussions with people over the years, the following categories seem to influence liberal or conservative thinking.

Type of college degree

Type of job

Gender

Age

Race

Religion

I expanded each category into sub-categories.  I assigned points to each sub-category, e.g. age - under 50, -10 points; 50 or over, +10 points.  When I score an individual on all of the sub-categories and sum them, a negative score suggests a liberal and a positive score a conservative.  My quickie model is amazingly accurate but not perfect.  Out of 20 people I scored, one had a negative score and is VERY conservative.

I’ll continue this discussion on my next blog, list the sub-categories and point assignments so that you can test the model.

Meanwhile, whatever I hear or read will only strengthen my beliefs.  Isn’t that crazy?

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com