What Conservatives Dream About

Uh oh. I had a dream about falling the other night. You know what that means...

MUST... VOTE... PALIN .... 20.....12. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

No, this is what LIBERALS wish and hope conservatives dream about.

Insert picture of 24 week aborted baby here. Caption: This is what LIBERALS dream about.

There, all this made the world a better place don't you think?

OK .... apparently i've been voting wrong my entire life. HUH

My guess is that Liberals have these dreams:

* Dreams of Falling
* Dream Discontentedness
* Dreams of Being Chased
* Dreams of Being Famous

Sheesh, we're all humans, folks. Let's not get too carried away with these silly divisive "they're different from us" studies.

I'm with Jasony. About the only difference is probably that liberals dream of being chased by a disgruntled Sarah Palin.

come on!!....this is made up hooey. What in the wild blue yonder are we supposed to do with this??? Surely there is something more important for college kids to work on. I am totally missing the intellectual gravity of "discovering" the Sally had a dream of being chased and astonishingly....no..wait....perplexingly...no....Amaaazingly she can't stand Obama. How do you seriously look at one another and say, "This is big! We need to publish this!"

Not surprised to see time and money being wasted in CA.

Here's my new research study that is of equal and perhaps greater importance:

This is not surprising since there are clear differences in personality between conservatives and liberals.

If you read the abstract, you see that students of any political persuasion were included, so these are the ways the more conservative differs from the rest. The more liberal had dreams that scored higher on openness to experience, uninhibitedness and sex.

This is actually quite interesting research since it is yet another piece in the puzzle of how our personality and genetic makeup influence our political leanings.

I don't dream at all. Dreams are primarily the consequence of desires and fears. And although I've said before that my fears are mainly about approval, I don't feel any significance for them. I haven't had much of a dream for the last 5 years.

ROFL Per... See this is how junk science propagates. What is the graduate students definition of "Openness" or "Uninhibitedness"? Were they high in their dorm room making up the definitions before the "test" or after?

Only 48 "students" were studied. What sample were deemed to be "conservative", what sample were not liberal or conservative? Is this sample statistically significant? Who selected the 48 students? What was the criteria?

The world will never know. "The character of conservative dreaming is discussed along with the study's relevance to past and subsequent issues in research." Maybe the discussion was how NOT to do a study? Maybe the discussion was what crap you should NOT put forward for peer review?

Ha!

Ryan, I forget my dreams so soon after awakening that I recall only one or two dreams from the past decade. I've read research that we says dream just as much, but as we age we forget them dreams faster and more often.

Sorry, the picture and the headline are just BEGGING for this... They dream about shooting elephants:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/godaddy-ceos-elephant-hunting-video-ignites-controversy/

Somewhat related anecdote: I smoked cannabis daily for 7-8 years and never dreamed. I've recently quit and started dreaming again, quite vividly, every night after about 2 weeks. I've done a little informal survey and none of the people who indulge on a regular basis dream, either. (Admittedly, this may be due to lack of short term memory.)

Now, where's my research grant??

Campbed - It's true that the sample size is pretty small, but a quick look at the article shows they used standardized scales (Kerlinger Social Attitude Statement Scale, KJP Dream Scale) and the results were significant even with a small sample.

More importantly, their findings match the findings of a large number of studies that find a relationship between personality and political views. This is mainstream science and well known.

The main point is that we think we chose our political views based on good arguments, but a great deal of research indicate that the reverse is the case: We are predisposed to a certain political leaning (largely based on genetics), and then find ways to justify it so it appears we made a rational and intentional choice.

As I said, this is just another piece in that puzzle, and the consequences do have a real life impact.

For instance, realizing that we all have leanings mainly based on genetics, I find a much greater appreciation for the different views out there. This diversity has helped us through our evolution as a species, and continue to help us through diverse political opinions. They are all needed.

I suppose age may have something to do with it. When I was a teenager I used to have dreams - nightmares - a lot. I never had a wet-dream though. I would go to sleep some-what in anticipation and end up dreaming about getting gang-beat and dumped in a ditch for dead.

I always thought conservatives dreamed of electric sheep.

Considering those are some of the most common dream themes in general, this doesn't surprise me.