Conservatives are more simple - minded and happier than liberals , according to a new study published in the journalSocial Psychological and Personality Science .
The work , conduct by Professor of Psychology Jo Ann Abe of Southern Connecticut State University , expect at Biden and Trump supporters just before the 2020 election . Abe inquire 1,518 demographically diverse participant to publish a narrative piece about the then approaching election . They were also asked who they intended to vote for , as well as to grade how enthusiastic they were for those nominee , and were asked to order themselves and the two Presidential campaigner using theTen - Item Personality Inventory .
The piece of committal to writing produced by the participants was then analyzed using three automated text edition analysis programs . One assessed story of complexity within the writing , while another assessed levels of positiveness and negativeness . The final program wait at the " levels of confidence , certainty , and conviction in a narrative " , which was seen as a " lingual indicant of categorical thinking " .
" As expected , extremely enthusiastic Trump supporters used less cognitively complex and more confident language than both their less enthusiastic counterparts and Biden supporters , " Abewrote in the study . They also used more positivist language than Biden supporters , who used more words associated with negative emotion ( such as fear and anxiety ) .
As well as this , the bailiwick found that Trump supporters who rated the President as trustworthy , but not Biden , thought more categorically and had gamey levels of authority and conviction in their narratives . Meanwhile , Biden voters who rated him as trustworthy used more cognitively complex and less positive language .
Though the upshot was less pronounced , Biden supporters who were enthusiastic about their candidate also scored lower on complexity and higher on categorical thinking , suggest ebullience for candidates can cloud thinking around them .
Abe believes the results of the study to be sound , though she say more study is needed to corroborate the finding around further election .
" Although the results of this subject field are broadly consistent with the view that conservatives may be more simple - minded and happy than liberals , " Abe reason , " these findings involve to be replicated using the same methodological analysis and different set of candidates during another election to demonstrate their generalizability . "
