[lbo-talk] Cats and Dogs

mike larkin mike_larkin2001 at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 5 12:57:50 PST 2006


http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_03/008350.php

"THE LIBERAL TEMPERAMENT....Before I even get started here, let me say up front that I have no idea if Neuropolitics.org is even a remotely credible organization. And since it's a weekend, I don't care. However, I applaud them for taking on one of today's weightiest political questions: Is it really true that liberals like cats and conservatives like dogs?

As you can see from the chart on the right, the answer is a resounding yes. Among women, about 60% of the very liberal prefer cats, plummeting to 40% among the very conservative. Among men, it goes from 45% to 30%.

The inverse is true for dogs, with preference for canines going up with conservatism except for one odd blip among very conservative women, who have equal preferences. For those of you who demand an explanation for this, here it is (sort of):

So what is driving the Conservative preference for dogs over cats? Is it the dog's pack-oriented nature and prominent submissive behaviors?....Does the Liberal have a stronger aversion to pack-like hierarchical organizations and an attraction to feline-like territorial-based social organization?

Whatever. Personally, I think cats are just more likely to take ruthless advantage of liberals' good nature. Who else would put up with them?

Thirsting for more? Here's what else the Neuropolitics folks claim to have discovered:

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Liberals are more inclined to believe that the rich and powerful have a negative social value. No surprise there.

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Among men, conservatives are more active in high school sports. Texas probably skews the results here.

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Extroverts have a better sense of smell than introverts. This is actually sort of interesting. Also: extroverts tend to be more conservative and more religious.

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Conservatives like the colors red and dark blue. Liberal men like dark green; liberal women like light blue.

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Conservatives tend to be morning people. I hate morning people.

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Among women, conservatives are more likely to be sex-obsessed than liberals. Phyllis Schlafly, come on down!

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Liberals curse more than conservatives. Of course, we have reason to.

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Conservatives like beef more than liberals. ("If you eat a lot of beef, do you become more conservative? If you are conservative, do you eat more beef? More to come on this surprising and significant dietary preference.")

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Liberals are more depressed than conservatives. Gee, I wonder why?

All of this is accompanied by loads and loads of entertaining ev psych explanations. Have fun!"

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