Reply #63: Doesn't it matter that this study was done in the Berkeley area?

[Plaid Adder]

My impression is that in the Berkeley area, the dominant ethos is progressive. I think the results would probably be different if you did the study someplace where the dominant ethos was conservative. I don't know how, exactly, but before I accept this as gospel I'd want to see the study done on a national scale.

OK, the article does deal with this in a later paragraph:

"Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial."

In general this seems to assume that insecurity is a temperamental thing that kids are basically born with. But some kids who are insecure are that way because they've been picked on--either at home or at school, and often if it's at school it's because the other kids have figured out that they're sensitive, or as this article puts it "whiny," and therefore more entertaining to torment. Seems to me like a kid with that profile is at least as liable to wind up being a liberal based on their experience of persecution and of being an outsider.

To me this just looks like another study done to reinforce the message that being sensitive and vulnerable is bad. Whee.

Ah well,

The Plaid Adder