Moments of Spirituality Can Induce Liberal Attitudes

[cronus]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 131532.htm

Moments of Spirituality Can Induce Liberal Attitudes, Researchers Find

Feb. 25, 2013 — People become more politically liberal immediately after practising a spiritual exercise such as meditation, researchers at the University of Toronto have found.

"There's great overlap between religious beliefs and political orientations," says one of the study authors, Jordan Peterson of U of T's Department of Psychology. "We found that religious individuals tend to be more conservative and spiritual people tend to be more liberal. Inducing a spiritual experience through a guided meditation exercise led both liberals and conservatives to endorse more liberal political attitudes."
"While religiousness is characterized by devotion to a specific tradition, set of principles, or code of conduct, spirituality is associated with the direct experience of self-transcendence and the feeling that we're all connected," says lead author Jacob Hirsh of U of T's Rotman School of Management.
In three studies, the researchers -- Hirsh, Peterson and Megan Walberg, examined their participants' political views in relation to their religiousness and spirituality. In the first study, they asked 590 American participants whether they identified as Democrat or Republican. In the second study, they measured 703 participants' political orientations and support for the major American and Canadian political parties. The researchers confirmed that religiousness was associated with political conservatism, while spirituality was associated with political liberalism. These associations were in turn due to the common values underlying these orientations: conservatism and religiousness both emphasize the importance of tradition, while liberalism and spirituality both emphasize the importance of equality and social harmony.

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[Blind groper]

This means that both conservative and liberal beliefs are both bullshit.
Since they are a subset of politics, this is not surprising.

[JimC]

When I hear the word spirituality I reach for my Luger...

[Clinton Huxley]

When I hear the word spirituality I reach for my lager...

Fixed.

[JimC]

Gin, thank you very much!

[cronus]

Gin, thank you very much!

jinn, fixed....