Red Mind, Blue Mind?
If you see someones office, car, wardrobe can you make a good guess about their politics?
I liked this article from Newsweek about how our political leanings are a part of our personalties, part of who we are. I have often found that to be true. What do you think?
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MIND MATTERS
Wray Herbert
Red Mind, Blue Mind?
What our political views may reveal about our personalities.
Mar 3, 2008 | Updated: 5:24 p.m. ET Mar 3, 2008
My office is a cluttered mess and always has been. You can’t see my desktop, and my books are not alphabetized. I rarely file anything, though I do make neat piles on the windowsills and floor. I have artwork and mementos, but I have never quite gotten around to actually nailing them to the walls. They sit leaning against the wall. I decorate with Post-It notes.
I have never given much thought to my disorderly life. I figured I was just a slob. But new research suggests that there be meaning in my mess, indeed that my office disarray may reflect my views about everything from women’s reproductive choice to the war in Iraq. According to this view, habits like tidiness and messiness are really habits of the mind; they are meaningfully linked to basic personality traits, and these traits in turn shape political ideology. Put another way, our deepest psychological needs and fears may play a big part in determining where we fall on the political spectrum: left or right, liberal or conservative, Blue or Red.
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