All posts tagged: values

New research suggests highlighting shared values can bridge America’s political divide

New research suggests highlighting shared values can bridge America’s political divide

Published by José

A new study published in Social Psychological & Personality Science reveals that highlighting shared values between U.S. Republicans and Democrats can reduce perceived polarization and foster hope. Political polarization in the United States is often seen as deep and intractable. Surveys show that over 80% of Americans are worried about this divide. However, prior research suggests the extent of this polarization may be exaggerated, with Republicans and Democrats overestimating their differences on policies, engagement, and even support for violence. Lukas J. Wolf and Paul H. P. Hanel conducted this study to explore whether presenting overlapping distributions of shared values could counteract these misperceptions and increase hope about the country’s future. This research builds on evidence that values—central guiding principles in life—are often more similar across groups than typically assumed. Classic prejudice theories argue that perceived differences in values drive animosity. Recognizing shared values, the authors argue, could reduce partisan hostility and inspire optimism for societal progress. The research spanned three experiments with a cumulative sample of 2,529 U.S. participants, recruited via Prolific. Participants were required …

HERB’S CORNER | Values and Purposes

HERB’S CORNER | Values and Purposes

Published by skeptic

Getty Images/iStockphoto/anyaberkut What is the number one purpose of human existence? The primary biological purpose of every living thing, including humans, is to replicate so the species will survive. This is as true today as it was in prehistoric times. Charles Darwin showed that human are animals in a long evolutionary line of animals. The more we learn about our natural world, the less significant humans seem to be in it. But humans do have purposes. Purpose is about more than mere replication and survival. We have choices about what to do in the brief time we are alive. Most people have more than one purpose based on goals and activities that give their lives direction and meaning, and help them engage in productive ways. I think part of our purpose in life should include making good moral decisions. But how to decide what is moral? For some conservative religions, morality is more about belief than behavior. Their adherents follow strict rules that they believe prepare and qualify them for an imagined afterlife. If loving …

Secularists call for renewal of liberal values at NSS conference

Secularists call for renewal of liberal values at NSS conference

Published by skeptic

Educators, parliamentarians, and academics highlighted the need to challenge religious threats to universal freedoms at a National Secular Society conference in London on Saturday. Shedding light on the complex issues affecting liberal societies, speakers from a wide range of backgrounds emphasised the importance of secularism to liberal values. Liberal values and the secular state Opening the first panel of the day, Professor Ronan McCrea of UCL said liberalism is the “idea that disagreement is permanent, and the search for truth ongoing”. Journalist Emma Park said the starting point for liberal society is that “civil liberties are precious and should be jealously guarded”. She emphasised the importance of the twin values of free thought and free speech. Liberal Democrat peer Paul Scriven, who introduced a bill last year to disestablish the Church of England, gave an inside perspective on how the Church has a “special hold on the levers of power”. He said experiencing the influence of the 26 bishops given automatic seats in the House of Lords impressed upon him the need for disestablishment. Anglican …

The Rainforest Personality Test Reveals What You Value Most In Life

The Rainforest Personality Test Reveals What You Value Most In Life

Published by skeptic

The rainforest personality test is the newest way to learn more about true nature — specifically, what it is you value most in life. These types of personality tests dive deep into your psyche without making you think too much about it. This lets you act on impulse more comfortably, making choices that are truer to who you are and what you want for yourself and those you care about. Here’s how the rainforest personality test goes: You are on a journey to get back home and you reach a rainforest. You have four animals with you: a cow, a horse, a lion, and a monkey. Your food supply will never last if you bring all four animals with you through the rainforest, but you have no choice. It’s the only way home and you have to continue forward. You must immediately chose an animal to leave behind. Out of the cow, horse, lion, and monkey, which one do you choose to leave behind? Now you and the remaining three animals continue walking and all …

How Democrats are using music to reclaim ‘Republican values’ of freedom, patriotism and leadership

How Democrats are using music to reclaim ‘Republican values’ of freedom, patriotism and leadership

Published by Sam

Momentum in the 2024 US presidential campaign has fundamentally shifted in recent weeks, and music has played its part in this remarkable transformation. The Harris-Walz campaign is using particular kinds of music to help communicate its optimistic message of hope, inclusion and a brighter future for America. At The Democratic National Convention (DNC), Kamala Harris stepped onto the podium to deliver her nomination acceptance speech accompanied by her campaign soundtrack, the Beyoncé anthem “Freedom”. Tim Walz walked on stage to the sound of John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” (he grew up in a Nebraska town of 400 people). He walked off to Neil Young’s “Keep on Rockin’ in The Free World”. In addition to performances from stars like Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Pink, the DNC turned the delegate roll call into a dance party with DJ Cassidy blasting out state-themed songs and rapper Lil Jon singing live at the convention. Normally a rather staid process, this roll-call managed to become one of the most exciting moments of the convention. For well over two centuries, music …

Secularism and the safeguarding of liberal values

Secularism and the safeguarding of liberal values

Published by skeptic

It’s easy to see how the idea of being saved by an act of “divine intervention” might well appeal to a narcissist like Donald Trump. But his claim that he had “God on his side” during the recent failed assassination attempt is more likely to be the sentiment of a grifter exploiting religion for political gain. But sincere belief in the supernatural isn’t necessary for Trump and his cronies to dismantle America’s wall of separation between church and state. His nomination of conservative justices to the supreme court during his previous term of office paved the way for the overturning of Roe v Wade – a significant win for evangelicals. With a return to the White House looking distinctly possible, more laws to enforce the doctrines of his Christian support base could be on the cards. The rise of Christian nationalism in the US is another indicator of a backsliding of secular liberal democratic values, the foundation upon which many successful modern societies are built. Right across the world, wherever religion and political power are …

Putin forges a Russian society built on regressive, militarized values

Putin forges a Russian society built on regressive, militarized values

Published by skeptic

MOSCOW — As Vladimir Putin persists in his bloody campaign to conquer Ukraine, the Russian leader is directing an equally momentous transformation at home — re-engineering his country into a regressive, militarized society that views the West as its mortal enemy. Putin’s inauguration on Tuesday for a fifth term will not only mark his 25-year-long grip on power but also showcase Russia’s shift into what pro-Kremlin commentators call a “revolutionary power,” set on upending the global order, making its own rules, and demanding that totalitarian autocracy be respected as a legitimate alternative to democracy in a world redivided by big powers into spheres of influence. Press Enter to skip to end of carousel About this series “Russia, Remastered” examines how Vladimir Putin, stoking conflict with the West and risking a new world war, is harnessing his invasion of Ukraine to transform Russia and fulfill his revanchist vision of a restored superpower. End of carousel “Russians live in a wholly new reality,” Dmitri Trenin, a pro-Kremlin analyst, wrote in reply to questions about an essay in …

Family Values or Fighting Valor? Russia Grapples With Women’s Wartime Role.

Family Values or Fighting Valor? Russia Grapples With Women’s Wartime Role.

Published by Sam

The Russian Army is gradually expanding the role of women as it seeks to balance President Vladimir V. Putin’s promotion of traditional family roles with the need for new recruits for the war in Ukraine. The military’s stepped-up appeal to women includes efforts to recruit female inmates in prisons, replicating on a much smaller scale a strategy that has swelled its ranks with male convicts. Recruiters in military uniforms toured Russian jails for women in the fall of 2023, offering inmates a pardon and $2,000 a month — 10 times the national minimum wage — in return for serving in frontline roles for a year, according to six current and former inmates of three prisons in different regions of Russia. Dozens of inmates just from those prisons have signed military contracts or applied to enlist, the women said, a sampling that — along with local media reports about recruitment in other regions — suggests a broader effort to enlist female convicts. It’s not just convicts. Women now feature in Russian military recruitment advertisements across the …

Matching Feelings, Attitudes, and Values

Matching Feelings, Attitudes, and Values

Published by skeptic

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves.” —Carl Jung We all have qualities, behaviors, habits, or tendencies we don’t like. We try not to think about them. We’re often unaware of them. A sure way to discover and improve them is to infer them from what irritates us about others. If you’re intolerant of selfish people, try to appreciate other people’s perspectives. If offended by close-minded people, be more open-minded. If irritated by resentful people, be more compassionate. If irritated by pessimistic people, be more optimistic. If impatient with judgmental people, be less judgmental. If complainers seem insufferable, be more improvement and solution-oriented. If testy around stubborn people, be more cooperative. If you can’t stand to be interrupted, become a better listener. If egotists, braggarts, or self-promoters get under your skin, be humbler. If you can’t take rigid people, be more flexible. If intolerant of jealous or envious people, be more appreciative and trusting. If agitated by disrespectful people, be more respectful. If stingy people trigger you, be more …

Values are sharply diverging between rich and poor countries

Values are sharply diverging between rich and poor countries

Published by skeptic

At the end of the Cold War, many thinkers optimistically predicted that globalization would cause global societies’ social values to converge around liberal notions of personal rights and freedoms. Since then, technology has made the Earth “smaller” than ever. Global trade delivers goods from one corner of the globe to the other. Airlines allow us to travel across oceans in hours rather than days or weeks. The internet lets us keep tabs on events thousands of miles away, engross ourselves in different cultures, and connect with others almost instantaneously. And yet, according to a new analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago, societies’ values are not converging. Instead, they’re growing further apart. The rift is most pronounced between rich and poor countries. Diverging values Joshua Conrad Jackson, an assistant professor of behavioral science at the Booth School of Business, and Dan Medvedev, a final-year PhD student in behavioral science at the Booth School of Business, teamed up for the study, published on April 9 in the journal Nature Communications. Together, they scoured through …