Lecture Series Oct 2020: Joris lammers › view all

Political Conservatism as Preference for the Past

October 28, 2020 - 2 pm (sharp)
Series: Social Sciences Lecture Series
Event type: public

We are happy to announce that the next BIGSSS Lecture Series will host Prof. Dr. Joris Lammers from University of Cologne. His lecture entitled "Political Conservatism as Preference for the Past" is planned for 28 October 2020 at 2 pm (sharp)

Political differences are traditionally seen as differences in preference what direction the country should head toward: more or less taxes, stricter or more lenient treatment of immigrants, etc. In contrast, I propose that these differences at least partially reflect a psychological difference in temporal focus. I propose that political conservatives are more strongly focused on the past than are liberals. They intuitively favor traditions, institutions, and other aspects of the past. Therefore, conservatives reject liberal political ideas, because these liberal ideas are disconnected from the past. In support of this idea, conservative support for liberal ideas about issues such as social diversity, climate change, or gun control (in the USA) are largely overcome if these liberal ideas are framed (presented) in a way that draws a connection to the past. In fact, such temporal framing reduced ideological disagreement by between 30% and 100%. A large portion of the political disagreement between conservatives and liberals therefore appears to be disagreement over the style in which ideas are presented — not so much their content. 

 

Please join via Zoom:

https://zoom.us/j/96345266084?pwd=eGd6SDAxSFJ6am5lSllzWmgyRFVYZz09

Meeting-ID: 963 4526 6084

Code: 789704