Tag: conservatism

• Why Re-unionization Won't Happen

  29 days ago

  Will Wilkinson in The Moral Sciences Club

  Matt Yglesias and Timothy Noah are having an interesting dialogue about Noah's new book about income inequality, The Great Divergence. (As are Brink Lindsey and Mark Schmitt at Washington Monthly.) Noah thinks the breakdown of labor unions is to a significant degree responsible for increasing ... Read More

• The Conservatism of Fatigue

  about 1 month ago

  Will Wilkinson in The Moral Sciences Club

  Tom Jacobs of Miller-McCune reports on a study from Scott Eidelman, et al, finding that "Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism." Here's Jacobs' summary: A research team led by University of Arkansas psychologist Scott Eidelman argues that conservatism — which the researchers ... Read More

• Cato and the Kochs

  3 months ago

  Will Wilkinson in The Moral Sciences Club

  I used to work at Cato, so lot of people have asked me about the ongoing battle for control of the institute. Here's what I think. What I think is that so far the rhetoric around the controversy illustrates Tyler Cowen's dumbifying principle:  "Just imagine yourself pressing a button every time you ... Read More

• Country Music, Openness to Experience, and the Psychology of Culture War

  3 months ago

  Will Wilkinson in The Moral Sciences Club

  In the car, I listen to country music. Country has an ideology. Not to say country has a position on abortion, exactly. But country music, taken as a whole, has a position on life, taken as a whole. Small towns. Dirt roads. Love at first sight. Hot-blooded kids havin' a good ol' time. Gettin ... Read More

• Tea Party vs. OWS: The psychology and ideology of responsibility

  7 months ago

  Will Wilkinson in The Moral Sciences Club

  One of the most robust findings in political psychology is that liberals tend to explain both poverty and wealth in terms of luck and the influence of social forces while conservatives tend to explain poverty and wealth in terms of effort and individual initiative. Here's a useful summary of the ... Read More