DU How to spot a baby conservative

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - DU How to spot a baby conservative (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:49:42 AM EDT

Minstrel Boy (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-20-06 12:39 AM
Original message
How to spot a baby conservative (whiny children - study)
How to spot a baby conservative

Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ...

Mar. 19, 2006
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.

I this a bad thing?

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1142722231554

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:52:30 AM EDT

[#1]

The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

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.

Did the defenition of liberal and conservative suddenly just change?

Whiny, insecure, complaining to authority figures, persecution complex - sounds like a Liberal
Confident, resilient, self-reliant - umm....thats what a conservative is.

WTF?

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:53:33 AM EDT

[#2]

Exactly what I was about to say.

So whiney, needy kids grow up to be conservatives, and self-reliant kids grow up to be liberals who can't live without the government?

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:53:35 AM EDT

[#3]

Self reliant and liberal don't belong together.

Thus, this is obviously a flawed study.

Non-whiny probably means compliant little sheeple who were easy to lead astray.

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:54:12 AM EDT

[#4]

Aren't all kids whiney?

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:56:36 AM EDT

[#5]

I used to flash girls in elementary school. What does this make me?!

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:59:37 AM EDT

[#6]

On a simpler note, as adults, the whiny kids are self-confident, traditional, patriotic, self-reliant types and the mature, quiet kids become whiny, needy, annoying adults?

I wouldn't be bragging about that at DU if I were them.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:03:53 AM EDT

[#7]

Flawed logic.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:09:34 AM EDT

[#8]

I hated Do-gooder rats that always ran to the teacher when something was wrong or somebody was acting up in Elementary, Middle, and High School... Now, I really fucking hate it as an adult. By this Professors rationale, I'm a gun toting liberal!

Fuckin'-A
~Dg84

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:12:50 AM EDT

[#9]

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:12:52 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
I used to flash girls in elementary school. What does this make me?!

I was always in trouble for beating up bullies.

I also lost alot.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:15:45 AM EDT

[#11]

Yep, conservatives get that whiny crap out of the way when they are children.

Liberals are perpetual children who never grow up so they are eternally whiny.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:18:23 AM EDT

[#12]

Liberals would love to identify babies who will become conservative so they can kill them early on.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:18:24 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
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.

Me thinks there sample is a bit skewed.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:21:42 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
Yep, conservatives get that whiny crap out of the way when they are children.

Liberals are perpetual children who never grow up so they are eternally whiny.

+1

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:22:08 AM EDT

[#15]

WTF

Should be the other way around...

Liberals tend to be whiny little pukes...

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:22:09 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

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.

Did the defenition of liberal and conservative suddenly just change?

Whiny, insecure, complaining to authority figures, persecution complex - sounds like a Liberal
Confident, resilient, self-reliant - umm....thats what a conservative is.

WTF?

Control the language when you can't change reality.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength

-George Orwell

The whole "assault weapon" thing is a perfect example. Make up a scary term, apply it to objects you don't like and demonize them in the process. Now just about every sheeple thinks "assault weapon" == "black gun" == "machine gun".

This DUh post sounds like more of the same tactic Can't win by telling the truth, make the other side out to be wrong by flipping the definitions around. Remember the meanings of "conservative" and "liberal" have already been flipped in this country from what they originally meant.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:23:56 AM EDT

[#17]

A study conducted by the same mindless retards who believe terrorists are freedom fighters and President Bush and his staff are murderers.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:26:33 AM EDT

[#18]

The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months.

There's the key. Its how the baby sitters rated them.

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?

Translation: These were the kids who were always causing trouble, and had the audacity to challenge authority. This is "whiny" to the nanny types who were doing the observations.

The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals

Translation: Baaaaaa. These kids shut up and did what they were told without question. In the nanny's mind this makes them confident, and self-reliant, but in actuality they are simply the kids who did whatever they were told. Fine quality for a child, poor quality for a citizen.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:33:44 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:

+1billion
DU can go screw itself with these weird, half assed studies that really don't prove shit

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:34:35 AM EDT

[#20]

No bias here naaa...

from the Berkeley area

the UC Berkeley professor who published it

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:36:25 AM EDT

[#21]

Exactly... track 20 kids from the BEREKELY area? WTF? An overwhelmingly LIBERAL area and try to reason that the kid who grew up to be conservative is representative of conservatives nationwide?

Oh well, I bet the DUh'ers will take it like it's gospel. We are again seeing how wonderfully flawed their logic and reasoning is.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:37:48 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months.

There's the key. Its how the baby sitters rated them.

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?

Translation: These were the kids who were always causing trouble, and had the audacity to challenge authority. This is "whiny" to the nanny types who were doing the observations.

The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals

Translation: Baaaaaa. These kids shut up and did what they were told without question. In the nanny's mind this makes them confident, and self-reliant, but in actuality they are simply the kids who did whatever they were told. Fine quality for a child, poor quality for a citizen.

Interesting assessment. I was thinking along those same lines, in that maybe the so-called "whiny" kids were the ones who didn't just mindlessly follow the herd and "did not play well with others." I know for a fact that described - still describes - me. FWIW, I grew up in a heavily liberal urban area.

This is especially pertinent - as others have pointed out - when you consider that to become "conservative" in the Berkeley area means to buck the predominant mindset and be VERY shunned by your peers for being different. There is no reason at this time to not think the same may be true for kids who grow up "liberal" in "conservative" parts of the country.

I also wonder if parental influence was factored into this?

I would like to get my hands on this study - was this published in a peer-reviewed journal?

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:39:00 AM EDT

[#23]

the UC Berkeley professor who published it

ANY QUESTIONS?????

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:40:55 AM EDT

[#24]

How to Spot a Baby Conservative: they make it out of the womb alive.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:41:39 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Quoted:
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.

Me thinks there sample is a bit skewed.

Berkley, where whiny was invented.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:43:07 AM EDT

[#26]

I'd like to become a member of academia just so I can tell people "you're full of shit; don't ever publish again".

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:43:33 AM EDT

[#27]

So, the whiney kids don't grow up to be a$$ pounders?

Funny, you'd think it would be just the opposite.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:46:08 AM EDT

[#28]

So a conservative as a kid will act like one and grow up, while the liberal kid has his best years at age 2. Proves everything that I have thought before.

Posted: 3/20/2006 11:01:20 AM EDT

[#29]

seems to me the liberals are the panic stricken, emotionally stressed-out protesters who can't handle life without some agency intervening to help them cope with the global disaster in their lives. They are also the ones who boast of their grand achievements but fail to be able to produce actual statistics or results to prove their claims...millionaire liberals who give a few bucks and make sure the publicity is costing more than the actual gift given, for example...

Posted: 3/20/2006 1:31:20 PM EDT

[#30]

studies have shown, time and time again, that infants who cry more are left on their own to a much higher degree. this results in their development of emotional self-sustainment and greater autonomy.

the quiet infants, on the other hand, are usually much more quickly comforted when they do have a problem, and therefore learn emotional dependence.

don't we have a sociology student somewhere around here who can look up the primary study?

Posted: 3/20/2006 1:33:40 PM EDT

[#31]

Damn. Left desperation is really bleeding out into the open lately.

Posted: 3/20/2006 1:41:49 PM EDT

[#32]

Most 25 year olds are liberals. Paying taxes will convert them.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:02:04 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:
studies have shown, time and time again, that infants who cry more are left on their own to a much higher degree. this results in their development of emotional self-sustainment and greater autonomy.

the quiet infants, on the other hand, are usually much more quickly comforted when they do have a problem, and therefore learn emotional dependence.

don't we have a sociology student somewhere around here who can look up the primary study?

That makes sense, I spent the first month of my life in an incubator.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:07:43 PM EDT

[#34]

The ones from Berkeley that grow up liberal sit quiet, because their step dad keep blowing the bong hits in their face.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:09:24 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
Liberals would love to identify babies who will become conservative so they can kill them early on.

You're probably right.

It would be the opposite of the Spartans.

A race of pussies.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:13:19 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
Most 25 year olds are liberals. Paying taxes will convert them.

This isn't necesarrily so. I've watched lefties complain about what they called the cost of living (which made it very hard to move out of their parent's house. hehe), yet get redfaced angry at the suggestion that taxes should be lowered.
Does it make sense? Nope. That's why they are lefties.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:21:47 PM EDT

[#37]

This is news?

Liberals grow up and become conservative.
It's natural.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:30:43 PM EDT

[#38]

Hmm... Sounds like the author is equivicating the kids most people hate to the adults liberals hate.

SOUNDS LIKE FUN CHARLIE.

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:36:08 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
No bias here naaa...

from the Berkeley area

the UC Berkeley professor who published it

Which means..Liberals = Liars.

SOS.

Posted: 3/20/2006 4:17:20 PM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:
studies have shown, time and time again, that infants who cry more are left on their own to a much higher degree. this results in their development of emotional self-sustainment and greater autonomy.

the quiet infants, on the other hand, are usually much more quickly comforted when they do have a problem, and therefore learn emotional dependence.

don't we have a sociology student somewhere around here who can look up the primary study?

Other way around in our family. Crying lead to getting put into a roller thingy so we couldn't hurt ourselves (the one where the kid can move by "walking") and put in the bathroom. I'd be out like a light in less than 5 minutes. My brother would bawl his head off for upwards of 10.

I was a "quiet" infant. My younger brother wasn't. Guess which one's the emotionally dependent one?

Posted: 3/20/2006 5:24:47 PM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
How to Spot a Baby Conservative: they make it out of the womb alive.

Posted: 3/20/2006 5:26:09 PM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:
Quoted:
How to Spot a Baby Conservative: they make it out of the womb alive.

There was a prochoice rally in Washington the other day, but nobody could find any kids to attend.

Posted: 3/20/2006 5:28:39 PM EDT

[#43]

maybe they just worked the self reliance out of their system early.... who knows

Posted: 3/22/2006 6:04:55 AM EDT

[#44]

Did these Berkeley "scientists"

ever attempt to reconcile their findings with this:

Republicans happier than Democrats

Some 45% of all Republicans report being very happy, compared with just 30% of Democrats and 29% of independents. This finding has also been around a long time; Republicans have been happier than Democrats every year since the General Social Survey began taking its measurements in 1972. Pew surveys since 1991 also show a partisan gap on happiness; the current 16 percentage point gap is among the largest in Pew surveys, rivaled only by a 17 point gap in February 2003.

Could it be that Republicans are so much happier now because their party controls all the levers of federal power? Not likely. Since 1972, the GOP happiness edge over Democrats has ebbed and flowed in a pattern that appears unrelated to which party is in political power.
.
.
.
If one controls for household income, Republicans still hold a significant edge: that is, poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats; middle-income Republicans are happier than middle-income Democrats, and rich Republicans are happier than rich Democrats.
.
.
.
Conservative Republicans are happier than conservative Democrats, and moderate/liberal Republicans are happier than liberal Democrats.

Posted: 3/22/2006 6:15:13 AM EDT

[#45]

Liberals think the major media is conservative.

Does that also apply to their definition of a conservative person?

Furthermore, a single study of under 100 subjects doesn't really impress me. Has it been peer reviewed? Has it been replicated? Me thinks not.

John

Posted: 3/22/2006 6:16:19 AM EDT

[#46]

I'm going to publish my own survey that says liberals are lying bastards. I wonder how that'll go over at DU...

Posted: 3/22/2006 1:26:15 PM EDT

[#47]

This is worth a good laugh.

Posted: 3/22/2006 1:30:13 PM EDT

[#48]

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.

And this is a bad thing ... why?

Posted: 3/22/2006 1:32:57 PM EDT

[#49]

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.

I'm not up on my doublespeak this week. Somebody help me out: is "ambiguity", as used in the sentence above, a synonym for "his mustache tickles my balls"?

Posted: 3/22/2006 1:33:49 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
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.

And this is a bad thing ... why?

Liberals are plenty comfortable with ambiguity. Just look at the Democratic platform.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - DU How to spot a baby conservative (Page 1 of 2)

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