Just a few days ago I was reading an interesting article in the May issue of Reason Magazine about how well liberals and conservatives understand each other, and the posts by ECSNorway and Rev Dark reminded me of it:
Perhaps they should do a followup study: have liberals and conservatives try to tell each other their views, and see how often the person receiving the explanation sticks his fingers in his ears and shouts "Nyah, Nyah, I can't hear you!"
Quote:In a study I conducted with colleagues Jesse Graham and Brian Nosek, we tested how well liberals and conservatives could understand each other. We asked more than 2,000 American visitors to fill out the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. One-third of the time they were asked to fill it out normally, answer as themselves. One-third of the time they were asked to fill it out as they think a “typical liberal” would respond. One-third of the time they were asked to fill it out as a “typical conservative” would respond. This design allowed us to examine the stereotypes that each side held about the other. More important, it allowed us to assess how accurate they were by comparing people’s expectations about “typical” partisans to the actual responses from partisans on the left and the right. Who was best able to pretend to be the other?
The results were clear and consistent. Moderates and conservatives were most accurate in their predictions, whether they were pretending to be liberals or conservatives. Liberals were the least accurate, especially those who described themselves as “very liberal.”
Perhaps they should do a followup study: have liberals and conservatives try to tell each other their views, and see how often the person receiving the explanation sticks his fingers in his ears and shouts "Nyah, Nyah, I can't hear you!"