At this link is a talk given at TED a couple of years ago, in which a Psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, tries to tease out the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. I thought it was kind of interesting, in a psychologist sort of way. As a side issue, it raises the question in my mind; if religion is a product of evolution, have we really evolved past the point of the evolutionary benefit from religion.
Regards — Cliff
My 2 cents:
ReplyDeleteWhat I've been able to gather is that many evolutionary psychologists regard that religion is a byproduct of evolution. There are traits that you want to encourage for your survival and they just happen to also be traits that contribute to the propagation of religion. It makes a difference toward your ancestors' survival that:
1) They identified more with in-groups than out-groups.
2) Trust of one's elders is important for child survival.
3) They err more on the 'cause by an agent' than 'non' when confronted with their perceptions of the world around them.
And so it makes sense that something like religion would be a natural cultural byproduct.
As for other thoughts on left vs. right and psychology, I recommend the free online book "The Authoritarians".
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/