Liberal comment trolling polarizes conservatives (but not vice versa), study says

[Ichingcarpenter]

A set of recent experiments by Lafayette College professor Elizabeth Suhay suggests that inflammatory liberal blog comments do more to enrage and polarize conservatives than inflammatory conservative comments do to enrage and polarize liberals.

Suhay took recent debates on the sequester, and then set up online experiments where she exposed people to a neutral news article on the sequester plus two politically neutral comments (the control group), or to uncivil comments from a liberal/Democratic perspective, or a conservative/Republican perspective. Both sets of uncivil comments were inflammatory and aimed at attacking the other side rather than providing substantial arguments.

Suhay expected that this would cause polarization on both the left and the right. That’s not what she found:
it was expected that liberals/Democrats would move to the left (e.g., opposing the sequester and supporting Obama), and that conservatives/Republicans would move to the right (e.g., supporting the sequester and opposing Obama), in response to incivility from the left and right.


However, when the results from the interactive models were graphed, we only saw polarization among those on the right. This suggests a greater sensitivity to incivility among conservatives and Republicans. Why this is the case is unclear at this time; however, previous research has shown that incivility does appear to be more common in conservative than liberal media.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2013/10/07/liberal-comment-trolling-polarizes-conservatives-but-not-vice-versa-study-says/


See you can argue with STUPID and win .....LOL

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. "previous research shown incivility appears to be more common in conservative than liberal media"

Previous research has shown that incivility does appear to be more common in conservative than liberal media.

I used to call the Republicans the Power party and the Democrats the Truth party. Republicans are much more heavily infused with authoritarian followers and leaders, who feel that they are right or have rights and rules don't apply so much to them. It also goes along with the 1% and 1%-wannabes who similarly feel entitled to power.

When people feel entitled to power, they are less civil about the gaining and exercise of it.

We see it in the raw naked power grab that the Rs and Ts are foisting on us with their shutdown of our government.

[roguevalley]

11. it seems simple to me. our positions aren't

tied to our dicks. Theirs are. Its always about their manhood. Even the women. I say this as a woman. We can ignore an ape. It doesn't affect our ___hoods. They can't.

[Hydra]

2. Hypocrisy as usual

Kind of the hallmark of the RW mind. "We're allowed to do things we don't want you to do to us...because we're RIGHT!"

[joeybee12]

3. This study gets me so MAD!

Oh wait, it doesn't. Never mind.

[CJCRANE]

4. That implies that liberals are thick-skinned and conservatives thin-skinned.

They can dish it out but they can't take it.

We can dish out and take it. But we dish it out less often.

[TalkingDog]

10. Or... that they have unthinking kneejerk responses, while liberals think things through

Therefore liberals are able to ascertain whether an argument is full of BS and if they should ignore it accordingly.

[Zorra]

5. It's very simple. The truth hurts.

Conservatives know, somewhere deep down in their black little hearts, that smack from liberals is true.

Liberals know that conservatives are always lying when their lips are moving.

It's not rocket science.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. yep

[dodger501]

6. Conservatives believe the end justifies the means

Any incivility, untruth, lie, or bullshit is righteously justified if it advances the conservative cause.

[el_bryanto]

8. We are more open to ideological differences

You doubt that sometimes when people get really riled up, but many liberals accept that a person can have different political views than them and still be a good person.

Bryant

[MrScorpio]

9. Not all assholes are right wingers, but most certainly, ALL right wingers ARE assholes

Simply put.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. You are channeling John Stuart Mill who said

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.

John Stuart Mill, in a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866); this seems to have become paraphrased as "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." which was a variant published in Quotations for Our Time (1978), edited by Laurence J. Peter. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Quotes

[MrScorpio]

13. Solid!