New research indicates social rigidity is a key predictor of cognitive rigidity

https://www.psypost.org/2023/07/new-psychology-research-indicates-that-social-rigidity-is-a-key-predictor-of-cognitive-rigidity-166284

by lgvln • 3 years ago

24 23 3 years ago

psypost.org

p-e-w4• 3 years ago

From the abstract (emphasis added):

Thus, we hypothesized a relation between forms of social rigidity, including Socio-cognitive polarization (i.e., a factor capturing conservative political ideology, absolutism/intolerance of ambiguity, and xenophobia)

Did they seriously classify "conservative political ideology" in general as an aspect of socio-cognitive polarization, and casually toss it into the same bin as xenophobia?

This reeks of bias from a mile away.

IG_Semmelweiss• 3 years ago

Given that this is a behavioral (soft) science study, and given what we know about that branch of social studies and its replication issues, I would expect this to be casually tossed into the bin " does not replicate" when under the microscope

p-e-w4• 3 years ago

I just love the label "soft science". It's genius marketing. Basically, it means that they get to call themselves a science, with all the hard-earned trust and authority that comes attached to that term, but without actually having to follow the rules and conventions of hard sciences in their work.

MatthiasWandel• 3 years ago

We use "science" to prove "they" are inferior.

p-e-w4• 3 years ago

It's not to the credit of the journal Psychological Research that they published the abstract in this form. A sentence like this one should have raised red flags during peer review, and at minimum they should have demanded clarification. The fact that they didn't suggests that the problem is systemic.

nemo44x• 3 years ago

The results of our craniometer on the rigid test subjects is further evidence. We also notice 3 dimples on the backside of their skulls further suggesting underdeveloped…

klyrs2• 3 years ago

Looking at their data, it appears that they did not toss them into the same bin; they measured each separately. They found positive correlations among the 3, with conservatism strongly correlated (~70%) to xenophobia and more weakly (36%) to absolutism.

p-e-w4• 3 years ago

What constitutes "conservatism" for the purpose of this study was based on self-assessment of participants, who were exclusively Americans and Italians.

In both the US and Italy, conservative ideas are strongly associated with the religious right (Evangelical in the US, and Catholic in Italy). This at minimum means that the results of this study do not necessarily transfer to other societies, but more likely suggests that those two nationalities were deliberately chosen to arrive at a predetermined conclusion.

Liquix• 3 years ago

...sociologists and psychologists have postulated that right-wing attitudes are associated with a ‘strict’ cognitive style,” Salvi explained. “However, most of the research in cognitive and social psychology...

They really do try to slip political bias into this "paper" wherever possible. Bizarre and untrustworthy authorship.

FooBarBizBazz• 3 years ago

Everybody be queering gender all the time.

But try queering a political binary and all of a sudden everybody's staring at you.

treeman79• 3 years ago

Reminds me of this study about how liberals were smarter than conservatives because they could recognize W better in obscure patterns. At the time George W. Bush was president. W being a a huge trigger for many liberals.

Of course now we have TDS.

blackbear_2• 3 years ago

This reeks of bias from a mile away.

What is your opinion on the section of the paper where they discuss the link between conservative ideology (and political extremism in general, including liberal) and perceptual rigidity, referencing 28 other studies?

ilaksh• 3 years ago

It looks like another one of those sincere efforts to prove that people who have different worldviews from the authors are just stupid.

And people love to vote up those papers because they assume that it scientifically proves their belief system is the correct one and the other guys are just dumb.

I'm an atheist and my twin brother is very religious. Worldviews come from the information streams you are subject to and also from the groups you are in.

Just because it was published doesn't mean it's not absolute nonsense.

one_level_deep• 3 years ago

== It looks like another one of those sincere efforts to prove that people who have different worldviews from the authors are just stupid.==

Your comment reads as the same, just in the opposite direction.

== And people love to vote up those papers because they assume that it scientifically proves their belief system is the correct one and the other guys are just dumb.==

Or maybe they find the results useful/insightful. I don’t think being cynical about other people’s motives really helps us understand human behavior.

blackbear_2• 3 years ago

Just because it was published doesn't mean it's not absolute nonsense.

Strong words. Would you be so kind and you point out what in the article is "absolute nonsense" and invalidates the conclusions?

Mountain_Skies• 3 years ago

Historians know how this eventually ends as an ever-growing group is "othered" by the dominate societal power structure. Doubt those chuckling at their cleverness at finding new ways to turn up the heat on divisiveness will fare very well, just like they didn't fare very well in other societies that collapsed from internal strife.

New research indicates social rigidity is a key predictor of cognitive rigidity

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