More on psychology and politics

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology-john-hibbing-negativity-bias

Comment on psychological nature of political choice

Yeah, I saw reports about this research before. It seems self evident that people chose political ideologies that fit with their personalities. The article doesn't go into how the ideology chosen (or given by parents and the environment) may also help shape the personality. The Mother Jones author then makes sweeping claims that this includes genetic, which I don't think the science really supports. Finally, it has always been clear that at the extremes, ideologically driven people are not amenable to arguments to change their minds. But it is also true that ideologies (and who they appeal to) do change over time and are very context specific. So there are periods of history where different ideologies appeal to different personalities. It is not so simple that "negativity bias" will inevitably lead people to be conservative. Rather, at this time, conservatism has co-opted certain arguments which appeal to people with negativity bias. Liberals could probably emphasize a certain perspective which would appeal to that bias and conservatives could end up with a different appeal, and people would switch ideologies without changing their underlying personality. Them's my thoughts.