[extropy-chat] The Psychology of Different Ideologies

[Robin Hanson]

At 02:07 PM 3/23/2005, Hal Finney wrote:
>If the conservative is afraid of his own lusts, and the liberal is afraid
>of his own greed, then the libertarian is afraid of his own dependency. ...
>I'd suggest that it is helpful for Extropians and other transhumanists to
>turn a similar self-critical eye ... overcoming the comforting
>lies and self-deception that interfere with our perception of the truth.

The obvious candidate that comes to my mind is the mediocrity of our lives.
Many like to escape our humdrum lives via reading science fiction, where
characters engage dramatic implications of technology for their lives.  Some
of us want to believe that our lives really are like that.  We feel important
by talking about big issues and acting as if they mattered to us personally.

That all said, this is the sort of point where the academic in me screams,
"Read the damn literature!"  There are literally thousands of studies out there
trying to make sense of what ideology is, in part by looking at what it
correlates with.  What I recall of what I've read is that all the correlations
found are very weak.  Those who believe that the above proposed correlation
is strong should test it.  Put together a personality test that indicates the
above fears, and a test the indicates ideology, and see how strongly they
are correlated.  All very doable.







Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323