A University study has found that Conservatives think Stephan Colbert dislikes liberals.The study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the effect of political ideology on perceptions of Colbert.
Results showed that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment with 332 subjects, researchers found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's politics.
Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in Colbert's funniness. However, conservatives thought that Colbert only pretended to be joking and genuinely meant what he said. Liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.
Conservatives also believed that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions verified a relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.
Colbert is clearly not a conservative. At a White House Corespondents Dinner Colbert, who the part of the Faux conservative talk show host, spoke truthiness as he assaulted Bush under the guise of mock praise. He lampooned Bush over everything from his low approval ratings to his handling of Iraq to his vaunted stubbornness and even got in a few shots at the Washington press corps as well.
The Bush episode indicated that conservatives really didn't get what Colbert was saying. Otherwise they would have never let Colbert roast the president.
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC Cable News had seen Colbert's skits when the show was first starting. He advised Colbert that the satire might be too subtle for conservatives.
Heather LaMarre, one of the authors of the study was on the Keith Olbermann show disusing the study. She explained that Archie Bunker, who was designed to be a ridiculous character, was viewed as charming and old fashioned by conservatives. Olbermann responded with something like "There you go. People see what they want to see."
A bigger question is why is there perceptual or cognitive disconnects exist between conservatives and liberals?
According to Wikipedia, Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development can explain some of the cognitive issues; He has three levels with that each have two stages: pre-convectional, conventional and post conventional:
- Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
- 1. Obedience and punishment orientation
- (How can I avoid punishment?)
- 2. Self-interest orientation
- (What's in it for me?)
- Level 2 (Conventional/Conservative)
- 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
- (Social norms)
- (The good boy/good girl attitude)
- 4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation
- (Law and order morality)
- Level 3 (Post-Conventional/Liberal)
- 5. Social contract orientation/liberal of the Post Conventional level.
- 6. Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience)
Charles Hampden-Turner of the UK also wrote a book on Kohlberg''s theory and used the term conservative for conventional and liberal for stage 5 of the post-conventional level.
Kohlberg indicated that people that functioned at the higher levels could understand the lower level thinking, but the lower levels had a far harder time understanding reasoning in the moral level above them.
Conservatives have two levels. The Stage 3s follow social norms have the 'good boy' or 'good girl' attitude. Rush Limbaugh has often stated that his Dittoheads are the good guys. Most of the Ditto heads are in fact, the lower level Stage 3 conservatives.
The higher level Stage 4s have a bigger picture view of conservative thought such as columnists Chris Buckley, Michale Smerconish, Paul Novak, James Dean, Charles Krauthammer, and Peggy Noonan. Although authoritarian thought has always been a feature of conservatism, James Dean of Watergate infame has stated that the old moderate Goldwater conservatism had morphed into simple authoritarianism.
This started when Newt Gingrich became the Speaker of the House in 1994. Newt did not want Republicans to associate with Democrats and also abolished the committee system in the House which had been based on seniority. Instead he made people who were loyal to him committee chairs. This started the spiral of the GOP into ideology and purity.
Most liberals and progressives are post-conventional. “In Stage 5 (social contract driven), individuals are viewed as holding different opinions and values. Similarly, laws are regarded as social contracts rather than rigid dictums. Those which do not promote the general welfare should be changed when necessary to meet "the greatest good for the greatest number of people". This is achieved through majority decision, and inevitable compromise. Thus democratic government is ostensibly based on stage five reasoning.” This sounds a lot like Barack Obama, doesn't it?
Stage 6's are rare birds and these people are usually great reformers like Jesus, Mohamed, Martin Luther and Gandhi.
The Stage 4 conservatives believe in law and order, but will happily look the other way when international law is involved. The Bush 'enhanced interrogation techniques' are a good example of this.
Stage 5 liberals respect both US and international law. They also know that laws are constantly being changed and do not have a high regard for the belief that law is etched in concrete. A dynamic democracy must evolve to succeed. Men make the laws and men can change the laws.
Another way of looking at this is that the conventional people are “in-the-box types. Post -conventional people are the out-of-the box types that are are more free thinking, open-minded and tolerant. It is not hard to figure which groups would oppose socials change like gay marriage and what group would support it.
It is also easy to comprehend why most religions are seeped in convention and orthodoxy and many follow codes of conduct developed in the Bronze Age.
You now know why Archie Bunker was considered a ridiculous character by liberals, yet was viewed as charming and old fashioned by conservatives.
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