Conservatives more susceptible to political swindles than other voters?

A study by two german psychologists, done on a poll of 190 people suggests that individuals with more conservative views are more likely to be impressed and persuaded by speeches riddled with vague sayings and figures of speech with little logical value, compared to voters that come from different political spectra.

Study: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article...ne.0153419

An article that breaks the jargon down: http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...-and-deep/


The sample size is rather small, but it has some interesting results.

Thoughts?

This isn't surprising. There is always someone trying to "prove" that conservatives are less intelligent than the oh so enlightened liberals. Instead, I say we stop seeing each other as enemies. Start realizing that it's the politicians who don't have our (and our nation's) best interests at heart.

This isn't surprising. There is always someone trying to "prove" that conservatives are less intelligent than the oh so enlightened liberals. 

I like how you think. To be honest the first thing that came to my mind was guillable people who think they know about politics but end up regurgitating whatever they hear. I've seen these kinds of people in all political spectra.

I think this study was a little biased in terms of how it was conducted, because it was about how much value people place on forms of speech, which is something that everyone uses in everyday life. It says in the article that the subjects were asked to say "yes" or "no" in whether some phrases hold meaning to them, like "the wet don't fear the rain"...But when you think about it, these kinds of phrases hold meaning to most of us and are not necessarily to be seen as a means of persuasion.

One study is not enough evidence to say that this is true or not, and to be completely honest, these days is very hard someone who actually does things in the correct way and without bias. I do agree with both of you, and take into account that I don't belong to any party, as I considere myself as an independent, that the left leaning people tend to demonize the right in every opportunity they have, and this is turning more and more people away from them.

BTW, that second link is terrible, I cant believe that a site that publish articles like this one calls himself "Scientific America". After checking both links I'm no longer sure if this is a real study or is satire

BTW, that second link is terrible, I cant believe that a site that publish articles like this one calls himself "Scientific America". After checking both links I'm no longer sure if this is a real study or is satire

The first link is the real study at Plos journal, which isn't even a particularly good scientific journal, I think many other journals would have scrapped the paper for being biased and founded on poor arguements.

You'll find that "Scientific American" is a site that tends to be like IFLscience, where some articles are good and some others have a completely misleading content of title and present things the way they want them to appear...but in this case it was consistent with the paper published.

I agree with both of you. I can't seem to find the like button. Good posts.

I'm not one to take a study (especially a single, clearly biased one) as gospel anyway.

I think we should stop all this polarizing and begin to work together concerning the things that are truly important. It's time for some real debate, tough questions, and less regurgitated rhetoric.