Christopher Ellis (Bucknell) and James A. Stimson (UNC): Pathways to Ideology in American Politics: The Operational-Symbolic “Paradox” Revisited. Jerry Kang (UCLA): Implicit Bias and the Pushback from the Left. Staffan Kumlin (Gothenburg): Learning from Politics? The Causal Interplay Between Government Performance and Political Ideology. Christopher Weber (LSU), Martin Johnson (UC-Riverside) and Kevin Arceneaux (Temple): Genetic Influences on Group Politics. A new take on political ideology: Evolutionary psychologist Jacob Vigil proposes a new framework for understanding the root causes of our political beliefs. Why genes are leftwing: The right loves genetic explanations for poverty or mental illness, but science fingers society. Holding liberal views may be in the blood, believe scientists, after identifying a gene that makes you more open minded. New research finds the elderly have a psychological incentive to embrace cultural conservatism: Such beliefs prop up their self-esteem. Terrance Heath on 3 fundamental differences between conservatives and liberals (and part 2 and part 3). You can tell a conservative from a liberal by those things each worries about: Conservatives tend to worry about things like creeping socialism and socialist creeps, while liberals worry about what their great-great-great-grandchildren will hate them for. From The New York Times, a review of books on the state of conservatism, and a review of books on the state of liberalism. From Salon, can liberalism save capitalism from conservatism? The resurgence of conservatism in American politics makes the question more urgent than ever. You might be a Marxist if you’re against imperialism. Critical thinking leads the political thinker to socialism, anarchism, and a rejection of capitalism. How the Left won the Cold War: In the West, there were no conservative victors in the Cold War.
