title: Liberals think more analytically (more "WEIRD") than conservatives.
abstract: Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan summarized cultural differences in psychology and argued that people from one particular culture are outliers: people from societies that are Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD). This study shows that liberals think WEIRDer than conservatives. In five studies with more than 5,000 participants, we found that liberals think more analytically (an element of WEIRD thought) than moderates and conservatives. Study 3 replicates this finding in the very different political culture of China, although it held only for people in more modernized urban centers. These results suggest that liberals and conservatives in the same country think as if they were from different cultures. Studies 4 to 5 show that briefly training people to think analytically causes them to form more liberal opinions, whereas training them to think holistically causes shifts to more conservative opinions.
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA tat8dc@virginia.edu.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Talhelm
authors.affiliation: New York University, New York City, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haidt
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA.
authors.forename: Shigehiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oishi
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, China.
authors.forename: Xuemin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA.
authors.forename: Felicity F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Shimin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D002681:China; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011057:Politics; D012938:Social Perception; D013850:Thinking; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: WEIRD; analytic; cognitive style; culture; holistic; politics