This issue has defied explanation for years……what exactly makes a Trump supporter tick? What about the man makes so many angry and so many devoted?
A couple of researchers have tried to answer those questions and a few others.
What makes a Trump voter tick? Is it policy, their leader’s charisma, or something else entirely?
Two researchers at the University of North Carolina and the University of Missouri set out to answer that by measuring candidate support, cognitive performance and political ideology among 831 US-based participants — and found that Trump voters are, simply put, more cognitively rigid and interpersonally cold.
“Conservatism is commonly defined along two dimensions: Resistance to change, and opposition to equality,” the two authors wrote in their study, published November last year in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology. “Liberalism is defined by the opposite. People with enhanced sensitivity to threat and uncertainty in the environment are predisposed to epistemic, existential, and relational motives. These predispose individuals to political conservatism.”
Part of the study was to resolve an ongoing debate in psychology about whether liberals and conservatives fundamentally differ from each other — asymmetry), or whether extreme liberals and conservatives are similar to each other (symmetry). In a new interview with PsyPost published yesterday, study author Jake Womick told the publication that they found support for the asymmetry hypothesis.
“Supporters of relatively extreme Democratic candidates were similar to supporters of more moderate Democratic candidates and were not similar to Trump supporters,” Womick told PsyPost. “This trend was particularly strong for interpersonal warmth.”
For the study, participants indicated in 2020 whether they planned to vote for President Donald Trump or one of the Democratic primary candidates, which at the time included Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others. They also completed psychological assessments of four variables representing cognitive rigidity (openness to experience, active open-minded thinking, dogmatism, and preference for one right answer) and two variables representing interpersonal warmth (compassion and empathy).
https://futurism.com/neoscope/research-trump-voters
Well that explains it….NOT!
Then what makes these mental midgets believe crap?
Conspiracy theories are more like fantasies. They are not theories in our scientific understanding. In short, a theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural or social world that has been repeatedly tested, and verified in accordance with scientific methods relying on accepted protocols of observations, measurement, and a critical evaluation of the findings produced. None of this is the case when it comes to conspiracy theories.
Yet, behind almost every conspiracy fantasy lurks an occult force operating secretly behind the seemingly real. This remains a fact for all conspiracy theories – past, present, and future. Perhaps it is not unfounded to claim that we live in The Age of Conspiracism.
Thanks to the Internet, recent conspiracy theories have migrated with ease from the margins of society into the center of political life. They have become an omnipresent feature of contemporary political culture. The recent rise of conspiracy theories occurred because of three – a political, a technical, and a health – developments:
A Theory About Conspiracy Theories
Because of their closed mind these voters will not think about their decisions once they are formulated…..they want to wallow in ignorance is my thought.
Turn The Page!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
Reblogged this on NANMYKEL.COM and commented:
Useful info!
THanx Nan the re-blog is much appreciated chuq
Yeah, I read that too. While it’s always prudent to understand your opposition for strategic debate and political advantage on political issues, I’d be cautious about trying to assign some level of an all-encompassing psychological mental profile.. and calling it “scientific research”. While most of us in opposition to Trumpsters and Trumpism can’t fathom the reasoning behind their justifications in preferring to believe in that lying demigod, trying to assign a metaphysical bio-metric as if it were an affliction would seem to smack of an elitism… and a subtle echo of the stuff of Nazi science trying to justify inferior races.
Having said that…. my sense is that the relationship between Trumpsters and “us” is more about a socio-economic status, perception of status, a feeling of being a victim in some form, and an ignorance of the context of issues because they prefer to be led by the opinions of others rather than critical think for themselves. That’s not to suggest non-Trumpsters don’t utilize that preference as well… and that might suggest the variants of human diversity within the nature vs. nurture values also has a role in this as well. But then that’s just me.
I’m ok just assigning “stupid”, “idiots”, “clowns”… rather than finding a scientific “un-scientific” term.
Maybe it is because I am old but I cannot believe that Americans can be taken in by the Orangeman…..Makes me weep for our future. chuq
Agreed, chuq. Shed a tear myself more than once myself in the last 5 years.
Can you believe this.. that Fulton County Georgia DA who is going after Trump for that election phone call asking for more votes.. after yesterday’s Trump rally blather in Georgia and his preaching that her investigation is all racist politics… she’s asked the FBI for protection for her and her staff to guard against Trump nutjobs.
I am beginning to think that Trump is the Teflon donkey….BBQ his ass once and for all chuq
Donkey.. ass.. I think they know what to do with those down in Tijuana.
Yep the same as Trump is doing to this country….hee-haw……chuq
I think diehard Trump supporters can be classified as essentially ‘Far-Right’. Some are openly racist and white-supremacist, others actually worship the Nazis, and some blame foreigners for their own impotence in society and their failure to do well in life. Easier to blame someone else, than to work as hard as they do.
Best wishes, Pete.
All in all the rank and file GOP is cloaked Nazis and have been since about 1980. chuq
Pete.. you folks are really trying to nail Johnson over there for all those mask-less parties.
He’s on borrowed time, Doug! 🙂
But the dem left and their media allies call everything that challenges their agenda, lies and misinformation conspiracy theories. They don’t dismiss these with facts but depend on ridicule. I am skeptical of conspiracy theories too but the Hillary manufactured Russia hoax no longer seems like Trump supporter nut job nonsense. Why is FOX the only one’s covering the Durham revelations? This 5 years of the Russia hoax perpetuated by the media is abig lie effort not the right’s conspiracy theory.
Sounds more like the GOP and their stupidity…..Why Fox? That answer is too obvious for a reply…..if it were not Hilary then FOX would not be reporting it. chuq
But the question remains : “Why not the other networks?”
That question is for the executives of the networks….for me this is not a story…..it may have been back on 2016 but this country has bigger problems than to keep reliving the past…..but that is just me. chuq
I agree . There are indeed bigger problems than reliving the past. If they’d just finish the wall and open the pipeline much of today’s domestic crises would dramatically improve. I’m pissed about 70,000 fentanyl deaths due to China manufacture, Mexican drug cartel bringing it in all thanks to open border. Thanks Mr President. If it is true they spied on Trump and tried to frame him that is a crime of monstrous proportions. A political party, media and elements of federal government unite in their conspiracy to get Trump – that’s the biggest story and threat to democracy in our history. Watched a bunch of MSNBC today. Their main news coverage is about Trump’s legal/financial problems and glorifying the left’s agenda. I can’t believe it. Nothing on crime, drugs, inflation, Ukraine, sex trafficking as though we are living in heaven constructed by democrat policies. .
For the record, I am not a Trump supporter for 2024. I applaud his policies but he’s just too toxic.
The Great Wall failed to stop immigrants and it was far my ambitious than Trump’s silly little wall. The only way you will get progress in this country is with big ideas….so far we have had 25 years of lackluster BS. chuq
I can agree with that too. I am so very discouraged, most immediately with no bail, immediate release and no prosecution as all the savages and criminals rampage with impunity. I have family on Staten Island and under no circumstances will they go to Manhatten.