Political empathy

I remember seeing the results of a study a while back, about empathy and understanding between the two major political parties. The study involved taking conservatives and liberals, and getting each of them to attempt to get in the other's shoes, mentally imagine themselves on the other side of the spectrum.

The results proved something that I'd picked up through casual observation of the debates: essentially, conservatives could understand why liberals choose their opinions, for the most part, just didn't agree with that line of thought. Most liberals, on the other hand, couldn't comprehend the motivations for conservatives. They simply couldn't understand why anyone would think conservatively.

Aside from giving scientific proof to a previously subjective opinion, the study was food for my thought, because though it gave the facts it did not give a reason why. It's mulled around in the back of my head for months, with my opinion varying slightly as time went by. Until I remembered this quote, and it made it all make much more sense:

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." --Oliver Wendell Holmes

Liberals are open-minded, by their very definition. They accept almost everyone and everything, not just tolerating but usually condoning and welcoming too. There are few things that are off-limits to liberals; everything else is fair game, and they have a myriad of options.

Conservatives, on the other hand, exercise strict self-control. They have a set of beliefs, self-imposed, that govern and limit their choices, and also the choices they accept from others. They are aware of other choices, but choose not to allow them in their morality.

This leads to a simple proof of the above quote. Once a liberal opens his or her mind to all the possibilities of a liberal morality, they can't imagine what it's like to not think that way. They can't put their mind back into the box, no matter how good conservatives say that box is for the mind. It just won't fit, in most circumstances.

Conservatives, on the other hand, can see what it would be like to have a broader morality. It's not as hard to imagine what more moral freedom would be like, because the only reason they don't have it is a personal choice. To exercise self-control, you must know what you are controlling yourself from, and so visualizing the outcome if you didn't is not such a big step.

Which makes the term "open-minded" a little misleading. Many liberals can accept a thousand different beliefs different from theirs as being equally valid, but cannot understand the people who aren't accepting in such a manner. Whereas many conservatives, though much less condoning of other beliefs, can at least understand those who hold them. It's a broad brush, and could easily turn into a stereotype, and the original study recognized that. But it's interesting no less, and the Oliver Wendell Holmes means much more to me now.