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Conservatives Are More Competitive in Our June 2005 Survey

In our June 2005 Survey, we found an elevation in competitiveness in Conservatives as compared to Liberals. This elevation was highest in males that described themselves as Conservative or Very Conservative.

Conservative females rated the most competitive of the females, and the Very Conservative females were second.

Competitiveness by Political Cohort by Gender (VL=Very Liberal, L=Liberal, C=Conservative, VC=Very Conservative)

The Very Liberal females scored the lowest among the females. Similarly, the Very Liberal males scored the lowest of the males.

Males in general scored higher than females, and competitiveness in males increased as one went from left to right in the political spectrum.

Competitiveness correlates highly with a number of other behaviors. First, more competitive males are more likely to be married. On the other hand, less competitive females are more likely to be married.

Less competitive males and females were more likely to vote in accordance to the wishes of their spouse. Competitive people were more suspicious of strangers. Competitive people have higher rates of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Competitive people were more likely to get traffic tickets.

And we did find a possible relationship between competitiveness and climate. Competitiveness was positively correlated with those indicating residence in hotter climates. (See the article below).

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Does the Amount of Sunlight Exposure Influence Political Beliefs?

There is substantial evidence that Americans are becoming more conservative. In our June 2005 survey, 76% of the Conservatives and 7% of the Liberals say they have become more conservative. In contrast, 65% of the Liberals and only 2% of the Conservatives report becoming more liberal.

The theories that account for this phenomenon are typically informal and have been piling up quickly. We have a recent neo-Darwinistic theory that proposes that the different reproductive rates of conservatives and liberals is swinging the population towards conservatism. This is informally referred to as the Baby Gap Theory,

This theory proposes that conservatism and high birth rates are mutually reinforcing, at least among caucasians. According to this theory, the conservative philosophies of anti-abortionism and pro-heterosexuality naturally lead to higher birth rates. Bush carried the 19 states highest in white fertility. Kerry won the 16 states lowest in white fertility. Are white Liberals being gradually eliminated by natural selection?

To make matters worse for the Liberals, our most recent survey found that Conservatives are 21% more likely to carry on the political affiliations of their parents. Higher birth rates and higher rates of political heredity make for a significant advantage for the Conservatives over time.

Below, we see a blue and red map of the continental United States. The blue states indicate a victory for Kerry, and the red states indicate a victory for Bush.

2004 Presidential Election: Bush (Red) vs. Kerry (Blue)

Interesting is the close proximity of the blue states to major bodies of water in latitudes generally above 36 degrees. Of the 19 states that voted for Kerry, 18 of them border major bodies of water (Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Great Lakes). Vermont is the exception, but is still very close to the Atlantic.

California is a special case due to its wide range of latitudes---it extends from 32 to 42 degrees. However, in the southern portion of California, the caucasians tend to vote conservatively. San Francisco is at 37 degrees, and slightly above the lowest latitude where we find any counties in California where caucasians preferred Kerry.

Another anomaly is Hawaii, which extends between 16 and 23 degrees north latitude. where 58% of Caucasians preferred Kerry compared to 42% for Bush. Caucasians make up about 22% of the Hawaiian population.

Alaska is another anomaly, with a lower latitude of 51 degrees and an upper latitude of 80 degrees. However, the unusually low population density makes it a special case. (See our upcoming discussion of the relationship between population density and political affiliation in our next issue of Neuropolitics.org).

Caucasian skin is not well adapted to handle the levels of sunshine that are generated in the latitudes near the equator, and for the most part, the caucasian diaspora from Europe would reflect a preference for latitudes between 20 and 55 degrees, in both hemispheres, with the exception of ocean-cooled equatorial regions.

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Emotional Recognition and Visuospatial Task Performance in Conservatives and Liberals

Cautious, bored, or insisting? Conservatives and liberals generally have different opinions as to what emotion this face is expressing. In our June 2005 survey, we had 1,473 people categorize the facial expressions of two women and two men, and had some interesting results. 59% of Conservatives classified the above face as "cautious", as compared to 46% of the Liberals.

Liberals were more likely to classify this face as "insisting". The tendency of Liberals to view this face as potentially more authoritative was more pronounced in Liberal females than Liberal males. Do Liberals in general view male emotional expressions as being potentially more threatening?

There is insufficient evidence to make such a claim. Note that 77% of Conservatives reported suspiciousness of strangers as compared to 63% of the Liberals. But the Conservative elevation in suspiciousness was not evident in the emotional recognition scores in our survey. Since facial recognition is only a component of overall emotional recognition, the results from our June 2005 survey are interesting, but far from conclusive.

Also note that both Liberals and Conservatives were much better at reading the faces of the females than the male faces in our survey.

Another interesting note is that Liberals performed slightly better than Conservatives at reading the female faces, and Conservatives were better at reading the male faces. Are Conservatives better programmed for male emotional recognition, and are Liberals better programmed for female emotional recognition?

There is substantial evidence implicating both age and gender as key variables in emotional recognition and visuospatial reasoning. Research has generally demonstrated a female advantage in emotional recognition and a male advantage in visuospatial reasoning. Aging has also been closely associated with visuospatial reasoning deficits. There is also evidence indicating emotional recognition problems for people over 60.

Since our survey was not controlled for equal age-sex percentages of Conservatives and Liberals, we will include these dimensions in our results. Age will be broken down into less than 40 and 40-plus cohorts.

Male Emotional Recognition Scores

Overall, Conservative males scored slightly higher than Liberal males in emotional recognition--2.96 vs 2.93 (4 was the maximum possible score). Liberal males scored slightly better with female faces--1.58 vs 1.56 (2 was the maximum possible score). Conservative males scored better with male faces--1.40 vs 1.35 for the Liberals. When broken out into two age cohorts (under 40 and 4o+) , we see the following graph:

Male Emotional Recognition Scores

Emotional recognition in Liberals would vary greatly between the under-40 and 40-plus groups. The under-40 Liberal males would post the highest emotional recognition scores for the males, and the over-40 Liberal males would post the lowest. The Conservative males had a slight elevation in the 40-plus group.

Female Emotional Recognition Scores

Overall, Conservative females scored highest on the female scale, with a 3.01. The Liberal females scored significantly lower, with a 2.86. The Liberal females would score slightly higher with females faces--1.63 vs 1.62 for the Conservative females. However, the Conservative females would score significantly higher with male faces--1.38 vs 1.23 for the Liberal females. When broken out by our two age cohorts we see the following graph:

Female Emotional Recognition Scores

Emotional recognition scores would vary greatly for the female Liberals. This mirrors the pattern with the male Liberals. While both the under-40 Conservatives and Liberals scored nearly the same, (3.11 vs 3.10), the over-40 Liberal females would exhibit a strong deficit. The over-40 Conservative females would also show an impairment in emotional recognition, though not as dramatic.

Male Visuospatial Task Performance

Overall, Conservative males would score better on the four visuospatial tasks in our survey--2.25 vs 2.21 for the Liberal males (4 was the maximum score). When broken out into our two age cohorts, we see the following graph:

Male Visuospatial Task Performance Scores

Conservative males had a slight advantage in the under-40 group (2.29 vs 2.28), and a larger advantage in the over-40 group (2.21 vs 2.13). Again we see a larger decline in the over-40 performance for the Liberals, consistent with the emotional recognition scores. The graph looks much like the previous graph.

Female Visuospatial Task Performance

On the female side, the Liberals had an overall advantage as compared to the Conservatives (2.10 vs 2.00). Remember that the Liberal females had a deficit in facial recognition. If we look at the results by age on the next page, we see the following graph:

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Conservative by Day, Liberal by Night

As if Conservatives and Liberals weren't already different enough, we may have detected a variance in their circadian clocks---especially among males.

52% of all Conservatives indicated higher mental focus in the morning hours, as compared to just 39% of Liberals. This discrepancy is higher if we just look at males (56% to 35%). Conversely, Liberals report higher mental focus during the evening and late evening.

The circadian rhythm in mammals is under the control of the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, which controls the core body temperature, cortisol secretion, sleepiness, and melatonin secretion.

The nocturnal orientation of the Liberals is curious---and possibly related with other research implicating a stronger aural orientation in the Liberals---and in particular, the male Liberals. Darkness places a higher value on processing aural stimuli, and perhaps the reported elevation in Liberal nocturnal mental focus and orientation to aural stimuli are linked.

Similarly, the male Conservative advantage in visuospatial task performance may also be linked to his mental focus elevation during daylight hours, where processing visual stimuli is at a premium.

However, the results are very preliminary, and the hypothesis that Conservatives are more visual and Liberals more aural is purely speculation at this point. Stay tuned.

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The Liberals: Are Anxiety Disorders an Occupational Hazard?

Our March 2005 survey had detected a statistically significant elevation in anxiety and depression in Liberals. Liberals were 47% more likely than Conservatives to report chronic anxiety, and 39% more likely to report depression. However, we did not effectively trap the variety of anxious and depressive illnesses. Our June 2005 survey would fill in some of the details.

In our most recent survey, Liberals in general were 43% more likely to report general anxiety disorder than Conservatives. They were 115% more likely to report panic disorders, 119% more likely to report agoraphobic symptoms, 118% more likely to report OCD symptoms. and 54% more likely to report social anxiety disorder.

When broken down further into Very Conservative, Conservative, Liberal and Very Liberal cohorts, the numbers spread further apart. The Very Conservatives have the lowest rates of anxiety disorders, the Very Liberals the highest.

General Anxiety Disorder by Political Cohort

The above graph shows the elevation in General Anxiety disorder for the Liberals, especially the Very Liberals. Next, we have a graph of the reported rates of Social Anxiety Disorder.

Social Anxiety Disorder by Political Cohort

Note in the above graph that the Very Liberals are again strongly elevated relative to the rest of the political cohorts, even when compared to the regular Liberals. Remarkable is how the male and female patterns are nearly identical, with the males just slightly higher in each political cohort.

OCD by Political Cohort

In the above graph, we again see an elevation in the Liberals, with females reporting higher OCD rates on average. Very Conservative males report exceptionally low rates of OCD.

Panic Disorder by Political Cohort

In the above graph, Panic Disorder rates are again elevated for the Liberals.

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