In two studies, we demonstrated that liberals underestimate their similarity to other liberals (i.e., display truly false uniqueness), whereas moderates and conservatives overestimate their similarity to other moderates and conservatives (i.e., display truly false consensus; Studies 1 and 2). We further demonstrated that a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives in the motivation to feel unique explains this ideological distinction in the accuracy of estimating similarity (Study 2). Implications of the accuracy of consensus estimates for mobilizing liberal and conservative political movements are discussed.
That’s the abstract of a new article in Psychological Science titled “The Liberal Illusion of Uniqueness.” The emphasis is mine.
The findings for liberals reminded me of my favorite neighbor when I lived in North Carolina, who often alluded to Freud’s narcissism of small differences when trying to explain how petty little disputes can quickly become all-out wars in academia.
“If You Can’t Control What’s Important, You Make Important What You Can Control”
From a New York Times review of Richard Posner’s new book, Reflections on Judging. I emphasized the last part because it was oddly reminiscent of a disturbing trend in my own discipline.